Meeting Lazarus

on my way to the laundry house this morning, i passed by a woman seated by the roadside. she seemed in anguish. beside her was a soiled sack, which she must have been using to pick up garbage she could sell.
at a sari-sari store nearby, a young girl was looking at that woman with curious eyes.
i was such in a hurry that i didn't stop to check on the woman -maybe i could ask around and do her a favor.
as i handed my bag of dirty clothes to the laundrywoman, it occured to me it was not my first time to see that poor woman.
one night some months back, i recall giving her a piece of bread i bought from the bakery store where i found her wailing. she was carrying that same gray sack.
i don't know why i gave her a bread - for all i know she could be in grief over something else. but my hunch - that she was hungry - proved right when upon getting my little gift, the woman said 'thank you' as if she'd been waiting for that all along.
her reaction surprised me. that night i was rushing to get home to have dinner myself.
as i stepped out of the laundry house, i said to myself maybe i should go back and help her out. but first, i have to have breakfast - it was quarter to 10 and i eat my breakfast until 10 only.
i crossed the street towards the carinderia where i have become a 'suki,' for indeed the food served there by the bicolana cook is as good as the one served at home.
halfway through my eating, i asked myself what i could give the woman - i looked at the roadside and she was still there.
okay, i have a P50 spare, i could give her that. i could invite her to the carinderia and order her food. wait, i could bring her to my house, i have three fresh apples there.
I was about to pay my bill and had already figured what to do when, turning around, she was all but gone!
the poor woman, she could have eaten the scraps that fell from my table. i had P50, i had three apples - that made me the rich man. she only had a dirty sack. her anguished reached out to the heavens.
in heaven, there is a great divide that separates the saved and the condemned.
must i look for that woman before she gets her heaven with God?