I don’t know what it is about me  that I often find  people telling me their troubles and I do what I can to be a good listener and, if I can, give what help and advice I can.

However, recently I found myself talking to a chap who, like myself has disabilities and he told me something that deeply moved me. In fact,. It even caused me to shed tears although not in front of him. I’m not an emotional person and do not cry much but this man’s story really upset me.


 What, in fact, he told me was that he was using a good deal of what little money he gets on the services of a prostitute – or to give them their correct title in these politically correct times – a sex worker.

I asked him if he took precautions against catching some sexually transmitted disease but he told that he wasn’t interested in penetrative sex = he just wanted someone to be close too and share himself with if only for a short time.

I suggested he should see a counsellor whom he could see free of charge as he is disabled, as that would give him someone with whom he could share his inner feelings.

“It’s not the same. I don’t need to talk out problems” he said “I just need to someone to be warm with without any professional barriers such as counsellors have”
 

I asked him if he used the Internet as there are millions of people there he can talk with whenever he wants.

“It’s not the same” he said.

“I’ve got lots of interests and plenty of people I talk too face to face without going on the Net” he went on. “But what I haven’t got is anybody close”. His disability makes it difficult for him to get around well as his able-bodied friends can."

I then suggested he went online to one or more of the many sites which exist to enable to find partners. “I’ve done that” he said, but when you tell people you’re disabled they don’t want to know”.

“The people I have met who were interested live miles away” he said.

“I’ve found myself with potential girlfriends in Kansas City, Oklahoma and Nuremburg, not to mention someone across the World in Sydney” he went on. 

“ From my own experience I understood him completely – when you’re lonely it’s good to be able to feel a person not a computer.