Metropolitan cities like New York are riddled with homeless people flocking the streets. They are the denounced sect of any society and are ignored by most of the people. But a French lady named Karine was built in a different way.
During her visit to New York City, she did something extraordinary for a homeless man. However, little did she know that the whole world, let us repeat this, the whole world knew who this man actually was! Would she act differently if she knew that striking truth?
The plight of homeless people
All of us lead different lives and we all have to deal with issues of our own. Life gets hard sometimes but, luckily, for most of us, there are bright sunny days lined up. However, it is not the same for homeless people.
The streets and footpaths are their home. More often than not, they have to sleep with an empty stomach and no roof over their head. While most people consider homeless people virtually non-existent, there are individuals in this world who believe in showing compassion to them.
Compassionate Karine
One of such individuals was a French lady named Karine. She is very different from others. Karine has a kind heart and is willing to go the extra mile to ensure that she does something good and noble to make this world a better place to live in.
Her compassion towards people and especially towards people who are in dire need sent her on a rather unexpected journey that also shot her to worldwide fame! So what exactly happened?
Travels to New York
Karine is a French lady and belongs to the travel industry. She always wanted to visit the Big Apple with her family - her husband and son. And here it was - her dream of traveling to New York City finally came true.
The family packed their bags and left for the United States! Neither Karine nor her family had an idea what an unusual experience was awaiting them on the other side of the world.
Roaming the streets
Karine and her family couldn’t have been more ecstatic about traveling to New York City. So when they finally landed, they couldn’t help but immediately check into a hotel, throw their luggage in the room, and set out to explore the city of dreams.
After ticking off the mainstream places, they decided to tread down in the bylanes of New York City to take the vibe in. Something crucial was about to happen with them.
Ordered a pizza
Wouldn’t it be a sin if you get to New York City and don’t eat Pizza there? Karine and her family had their priorities set straight, so they decided to sit down at a local eatery and order a pizza. It was a chicken barbeque pizza and it arrived shortly, filling the air with its aroma.
The streets were abuzz with people rushing towards their respective destinations in a true-blue New York fashion. However, there was something those streets were hiding...
Good vibe, good food
All the three members were vibing and devouring the scrumptious pizza. They laughed together and planned stuff that they wanted to do later in the day. Karine felt blessed.
But there was something that caught Karine’s attention. Something that would mark a major highlight in her life and the life of her family.
Homeless man catches her attention
The adjacent street to the local eatery was abuzz with people walking in a rush. Karine realized that what they say about New York City is indeed true that it doesn’t stop, at all. Then she saw a homeless man scavenging for food in a trash can, right in the middle of the street.
He was in his 60s, and his condition was rather miserable. Karine couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. So she was about to do something none of her family members expected her to do.
People ignoring him
What broke Karine’s heart, even more, was the fact that the homeless man was non-existent for people who were passing by. It was like he was almost invisible. She thought by herself, “Are people so busy in their lives that they cannot even acknowledge the plight of a fellow human?”.
As the homeless man ravaged through the trash can to find something edible, Karine’s heart broke into tiny little pieces.
Karine’s compassion
Seeing that heartbreaking sight right in front of her eyes shattered Karine to the core. She was feeling something that no one else felt around her for the homeless man – compassion. Even her husband could sense Karine’s mood changing and he too wondered why.
The compassionate French traveler decided to act. She, however, had no idea how things would proceed later on. No idea at all!
Took pizza with her
She couldn’t take it anymore. She called out the waiter of the café and asked him to pack the leftover pizza in a box. The waiter did exactly that and returned with three slices of pizza neatly packed in a box.
“I couldn’t think of anything else. I took the pizza box in my hand and approached the homeless man.” Karine revealed this in an interview she gave later on.
Sorry but the pizza is cold
As she approached the homeless man, he had already taken out something to eat. She legit ran towards him and offered the pizza box to him. Needless to say, the homeless man was a bit shocked, seeing the woman’s sudden arrival. As he grabbed the box, Karine said in broken English “Sorry sir, but the pizza is a bit cold.” Not only did she offer him something to eat, but she also apologized for it.
The homeless man wondered at her humility. Till this moment, Karine didn’t realize who he was and started walking away.
God bless you
As Karine started walking away, the homeless man said loudly “Thank you ma’am for your kind gesture. May God bless you with all the happiness in the world.” Karine turned around and smiled at him. She was feeling extremely happy and content with her kind gesture.
But she didn’t feel proud about it. She felt like any other normal person. But a big revelation was creeping towards her that would shake her to the core.
A regular thing
Once this whole incident was over, she went back to the family, had some nice shakes at the café, and left. Later in the day, they roamed around the streets for a while and went back to their hotel. For Karine, what she did was a rather normal thing.
She felt like anyone would have done that if they were in her place but like we mentioned earlier, hundreds of people passed the homeless man without even acknowledging his existence.
Breakfast the next day
The next morning, the French family in consideration here, woke up and went on with exploring the dreamy city that is New York. They chose a nice restaurant to sit down and have their breakfast. When they decided what they wanted to have, they called the waiter and gave their order.
The waiter arrived sometime later and put their order on the table. But with their order, he put something else on the table too. The day’s copy of NY Post but why?
Her photo on the main page
The French family was a bit puzzled at the waiter’s move because they didn’t ask for that day’s newspaper. And obviously, why would they? They were just regular tourists but then it all made sense. When Karine took the newspaper in her hand, she couldn’t believe what she saw!
The front page of the newspaper had her picture with the homeless man but the main question was, WHY?
Puzzled French family
The whole family was actually baffled by Karine’s image being published on the front page of a prominent newspaper in New York City. They couldn’t make sense of it.
What made their situation even hard was the fact that neither of them was that much familiar with English so they couldn’t even understand what that image was all about. The big revelation was about to dawn on them!
The waiter comes to the rescue
The waiter who served them their breakfast and brought along the newspaper with him, could sense their confusion and arrive at their rescue. Karine told him in her broken English that she had no idea what this was all about.
“You really don’t know who this homeless person is?” The waiter asked Karine to which she nodded her head in denial. “Literally the whole world knows him!” Karine couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
IT WAS RICHARD GERE!
The waiter took a deep sigh and revealed the identity of the homeless person. “He is Richard Gere and he is a famous Hollywood actor. Very famous to be honest! The whole world remembers his face.” As soon as the waiter broke the news, Karine and her family went into a state of shock.
She couldn’t understand that why such a famous celebrity was roaming around the streets of New York, eating from a trash can!
Playing the role
Since the French family was even more baffled than before, the waiter revealed that Richard Gere might be shooting for a movie there. But it all felt so real that it forced Karine to do what she did.
Richard Gere was actually shooting for a movie in which he had to play the role of a homeless man in New York City and he was playing the role so well that he absolutely tricked Karine.
The scene
As it turned out, Richard Gere was surrounded by mini-extras there and the whole crew was present there too. But they camouflaged themselves so well that Karine had no idea that it was actually a movie set, placed right in the middle of the street.
The crew didn’t interfere in the scene either because none of them could understand what was happening.
Richard couldn’t understand either
Everyone present there had the same reaction when Karine offered Richard Gere some leftover pizza when she thought that he was actually homeless. Richard Gere too, went into a state of bewilderment when he saw Karine right in front of his face, with a pizza box in her hand.
The Hollywood megastar couldn’t make sense of what was happening around him.
Richard’s realization
For the first few seconds, Richard just stood there, gaping at the French lady who was trying to communicate with him in her broken English. It took some time for Richard to make sense of it but he soon realized that Karine must be mistaken about his identity.
He soon got to know that Karine was actually thinking that he was homeless.
Richard kept thinking about her
Days passed since this incident and Karine’s family even went back to France but Richard kept thinking about her. “I kept thinking about her that how compassionate that French woman was. She didn’t even think once before doing what she did.
That is the kind of positivity that we need in this world. That is the kind of positivity that would save this world.” Gere said in an interview.
Photo went viral
People might not be compassionate themselves but they do love such pictures! It didn’t take long for the picture of Karine handing over pizza to ‘Homeless’ Richard to go viral.
It spread like wildfire across the globe and she received praises from every nook and corner of this planet.
Karine interviewed
By the time Karine and her family went back to France to commence their regular mundane life, it turned rather interesting because as it turned out, their picture had already gone viral before they could land in France!
Karine became so famous for her compassion and noble attitude that people even started asking for her autograph!
Richard wanted to thank personally
Karine’s humble gesture left a lasting impact on Richard Gere. So much so that he wouldn’t stop talking and praising her compassion whenever someone used to ask him about that unusual incident.
“Though I already thanked her then, I would like to meet and thank her personally even more now.” He expressed his wish during an interview.
Karine’s statement
Karine gave numerous interviews after getting back to their home country but her statements used to remain the same. “I had no idea that it was Richard Gere. I just wanted to help the homeless person.
It was crazy when I saw my picture with him on the front page of a newspaper.”
Help needy people
Karine also had more to say during her every interview. She always used to stress the fact that we should always help needy people. Especially those who are homeless and have no money to even put food in their bellies.
And we too, agree with her! One noble and compassionate gesture can make the other person’s day so we shouldn’t leave any chance to help the people who are in need of something.
People’s reaction
Her compassionate gesture received rave response from all across the globe. One user named Estuardo wrote “That’s one of the coolest stories I ever heard, even though this world is going in the wrong direction every day, there’s still a lot of people with warm hearts that feel compassion for the less fortunate people.
God bless you all.”
Praises for the crew
Not only Karine, but people also appreciated the shooting crew’s response as well! One user named Yvon wrote “The director, Richard and the crew were fast to realize that this was a precious compassionate moment not to be disturbed. Bravo to all.”
And we do agree. The crew could have interfered in between but they decided to let it flow and acknowledge what was happening.
Praises from other homeless people
Karine’s gesture not only attracted comments from all over the world but also caught the attention of several people who had been homeless before.
One of the most touching comments read “As someone who's been homeless,I have to say, this woman is an angel. I hope her life is filled with joy and love.”
Time out of mind
Talking about the movie that Richard Gere was shooting for, Time out of mind named movie revolved around the life of a homeless man ( Played by Richard Gere ).
In the movie, he tries to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter.
Movie reviews
The movie received good reviews from people. Especially because of the direction and Richard’s acting. It provided a devastating look at the parallel world of those who have been left behind.
Some people also broke down to tears after watching the movie so we suggest that you watch it at your own risk! Sounds good, doesn't it?