Love, whether it be platonic or romantic, can define who we are. Whether it’s relationships from the past, ones we currently hold close or those waiting for us in the future, love invokes feelings of gratitude, strength and anticipation that help shape our lives. Here at Real Change, vendors join our community with pre-existing relationships and have the opportunity to build new ones that become the fabric that weaves us all together.
Two became one
Rainee Osman (badge #1251) and Bruce Osman (badge #1250), Real Change vendors who joined together in 1996, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary last November. With love and adoration for each other that can be felt throughout the room, it’s almost impossible to believe they’re not newlyweds. Bruce Osman never fails to verbally proclaim his love for his wife, and Rainee Osman gazes at her husband with a fondness that can only be described as true love. The two met in the early ‘90s in Las Vegas, and Bruce Osman says they became hooked at the hip when they began their relationship. They moved to Spokane, Washington, to take care of Rainee Osman’s grandfather, and the couple settled in Seattle after he’d been placed in a nursing home.
They sought out Seattle in the hope that Rainee Osman would be able to access medical support for her drug addiction, something they said was lacking in Spokane. Once they arrived, the first people they encountered were two Real Change vendors who told Rainee and Bruce Osman all about the paper. Bruce Osman’s background in sales coupled with the opportunity to generate their own income pushed the couple to become vendors themselves.
“Our relationship, our attachment, our love and our commitment to each other and to getting well together [grew] stronger,” Bruce Osman said. “We saw every kind of bad experience. We were so ignorant. We came to town carrying two suitcases each, only for them to be stolen and the next day we [saw] all these people wearing our clothes.”
Rainee and Bruce Osman are now housed but that hasn’t always been the case. They were once homeless, but through Real Change the couple was able to receive housing vouchers, which allowed them to pay the deposit and first and last month’s rent. While this was a huge accomplishment for Rainee and Bruce Osman, they say their biggest and most significant achievement was when their daughter was born. Originally, the couple were under the impression that Maurer couldn’t have any children, but they were blessed with an unexpected surprise.
The pregnancy wasn’t without its struggles. Rainee Osman says it was especially difficult for her because she had been actively trying to get on Methadone, an opiate withdrawal medication, and her stomach was finally able to absorb it by the time she was seven months pregnant. However, to receive that medication, the couple had to raise the money for Rainee Osman to take tests that would show doctors that her body was struggling to take in the medication. At the time, Rainee and Bruce Osman had to temporarily surrender custody of their daughter to Rainee Osman’s mother due to their history of addiction and unstable home — yet another hurdle for the couple to overcome as they tirelessly worked to create a stable home for their only child. They reunited with their daughter when she turned four years old.
“She’s our pride and joy. She’s everything that we hoped she’d be, and [she’s] the most compassionate, intelligent, beautiful young lady. We feel it wouldn’t have been possible without Real Change being there,” Bruce Osman said.
‘I’m the protector’
Lassado Young (badge #13966), a Real Change vendor since 2019, is very close to his mom. For the majority of his life, Young lived with his dad in Oakland, California, until he moved to Seattle in 2013 to be with his mom. Their relationship grew stronger as they got to know each other more; Young even supported his mom with her weight-loss journey, helping her to lose over 100 pounds.
“A year after I got here, she was on medication, high-blood-pressure pills and all that type of stuff. So I completely just changed everything for her, and my mom is all natural now and she’s very healthy. Her birthday is coming up, and she’s gonna be 78. She’s my number one,” Young said. “I’ve made it my duty, my job, to get her healthy and help her lose weight. Introducing her to eating greens [and] drinking smoothies. That’s evolved [our relationship] for the better, and as long as my mom is good, I’m good.”
Young credits patience and kindness for strengthening his relationship with his mom. Staying positive while working hard are the pillars Young stands by that have helped him in building relationships with his family and at Real Change. He’s able to confide with staff members like vendor program director Caroline St. Clair, who Young says always makes him feel 10 times better. Communication is especially important for Young, who comes from a big family with four sisters. His family likes to have meetings together to talk about what they’re going through, discuss issues affecting their lives and connect over a home-cooked meal.
“Let everybody express how they feel. I bring my mom and sisters together, [and] we talk. That’s what I do, and I see how everybody is doing. I’m the protector of my sisters. I always call them to check on them. I tell them I love them. They look up to me and they see how I’m living. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I’m always there,” Young said. “My family is very important to me. My sisters are precious to me, and I don’t want nothing to happen to them.”
A second chance
Throughout the day, vendors with pets enter the Real Change office to buy papers, grab their mail or connect with other people. You can hear pets’ paws tap against the wooden floors while their human companions ask for them to sit and wait patiently. Among these adorable pairs is Denise Fortin (badge #12155), a Real Change vendor of 15 years, and her dog Bo. Fortin is usually soft-spoken, but Bo is a ball of excitement, always expecting head rubs and jumping for all the affection he can get. Bo was given to Fortin as a gift after the passing of her late dog, Tasha.
Fortin describes Tasha as magical, helping her deal with her mental health when it was at its worst. Fortin’s daughter really wanted a dog, specifically a shiba inu, but buying one wasn’t finacially feasible at the time. Then one day, Fortin and her daughter came across an ad for a dog named Tasha at price they could afford — they were sold on her. It took no time for Tasha to become Fortin’s partner in selling papers. Fortin even joked that Tasha was better at selling papers than she was, describing how people would come up to pet Tasha. Fortin says Tasha allowed her to open up and connect with people more. For the longest time, they were each other’s anchors. Unfortunately, Tasha died from a stroke in 2021.
“She was [a] bright thing in my life, besides my daughter. I didn’t get to be with my daughter all the time so [Tasha] took that brightness, [it] gradually grew and I saw the whole world that way,” Fortin said.
“I was just devastated [when she passed], and people would pull over and ask where Tasha was, and I heard that for over a year. It was just like an empty hole in your heart that will never fill up because that spot was always gone. Once you lose something, there’s always a hole in your heart. But [Bo] healed some of that.”
Fortin was touched to find out that her customers put together a GoFundMe to raise enough money for Fortin to have another companion. Receiving Bo was a delight, and her customers were just as excited. They would come up to buy their paper, talk with Fortin and play with Bo. Her customers even threw Bo a baby shower and then a birthday party when he turned one. Even with all the joy Bo brings, Fortin made it a point that raising him isn’t always easy, as a young dog comes with expenses and responsibilities that have presented challenges for someone like Fortin who is low-income. But, she says, she is able to make it work by receiving food for Bo through the Humane Society and visiting an outreach vet who reduces a hefty vet bill. Fortin says the struggles she faces are all worth it to have companions, like Tasha and Bo.
“Getting him was just unbelievable that they did [that] for me. The news even came and talked with me, and they had a party for me. That was really cool. I couldn’t ask for anything that much at all myself. I never would have dreamed.” Fortin said.
Willie and his pigeons
Over the course of the 18 years Willie Jones (badge #9719) has been selling the Real Change paper, he has been able to build a close, unique and some might say interesting relationship with the pigeons that roam around his selling post in downtown Seattle. Across the street from Pike Place Market, Jones can be seen sporadically throwing handfuls of split peas in the hopes that a few pigeons will descend from their high rise perch. For a long time, Jones ascribed to the misconception that pigeons were unintelligent birds. However, the connection he formed with them has since proved him wrong.
“They’re very smart animals, [and] they’re very friendly. Give them a chance. I got people that they land on now because I share [the food] with them. If I do that then people will start liking pigeons and once I’m gone then young people will take my place.” Jones said.
What once started out as just tossing bread to the birds on occasion has evolved into love at first sight — well sort of. Jones can often be seen sporting a University of Washington husky-themed jacket that he says the pigeons have come to recognize. The pigeons in Pike Place Market have come to count on Jones, who feeds them three times a day, seven days a week.
Jones recently turned 65 and has had an eventful life from undergoing surgery to combat his MRSA, going to jail and trying to make ends meet. Jones says him and the pigeons share a common struggle: They are both descendents of groups who’ve struggled to live; the pigeons have sacrificed so much from being used as messengers during times of war to now being seen as a nuisance by people. Recently, barbed wires have been installed on the top of the buildings by Pike Place, discouraging the pigeons from perching above. Business owners told Jones it’s because the pigeons were soiling the streets, but Jones says the pigeons shouldn’t be to blame.
“There are a lot of people that hate pigeons,” Jones said. “There’s no excuse for what they did to the roof. I’m a little angry to tell you the truth, and [if] I had a big ladder, I would climb up there and cut all that stuff down there. But, unfortunately, I can’t get up there.”
Jones believes it’s people who have more of a hand in making the streets of Seattle dirty and is fiercely devoted to protecting the pigeons. One time while selling papers, Jones had to confront a man who wanted to harm a pigeon and almost got into a physical fight.
“A lot of people are good, but a lot of people are jerks. You can’t be scared, you gotta be willing to fight [and] stick up for yourself.” Jones said.
Buddies for life
Donald Duncan (badge #14564) and Richard Smith (badge #14565) sell Real Change papers across the street from each other on Broadway in Capitol Hill. While they work separately and have their own customers and method of selling the paper, they look after each other when selling papers every day. Duncan explains that when either of them needs to use a restroom, grab lunch or step away from their spot, the other person crosses the street and watches over their stuff. Every morning, Duncan and Smith meet up, grab a cup of coffee from a local cafe and travel all the way up to their selling location. It’s worked well enough for them in the past three years since they arrived in Seattle together from El Paso, Texas. They describe their friendship as solid and find each other “okay.”
They first met in San Francisco, and Smith introduced Duncan to the San Francisco street newspaper, Street Sheet. Both of them have traveled across the country on their own and taken part in being vendors for multiple street newspapers.
“I wanted to bring him here because I wanted to come back to where I started in 1994. You know, he’s an okay guy and that’s how I look at it. How I’m treated and how I treat him. We’re pretty alright,” Smith said.
Smith joined Real Change in 1994 when it first began, and Duncan has been a Real Change vendor for three years now. With his extensive knowledge of selling papers, Smith has offered Duncan advice to help him build his skills as a vendor. One piece of advice that has really stuck with Duncan is to stay in one spot when selling the paper. He found trying to sell papers in San Francisco difficult, and for a moment, didn’t believe selling Real Change would even work.
“Nobody was really buying from me, but I was wrong. Everybody has certain days that they buy. I was standoffish with some people, but once I learned to loosen up a little, then things started turning around. People got comfortable with me and it started a domino effect,” Duncan said.
“I was always taught that honestly goes a long way. If you’re honest with somebody, then you have a friend for life. If you’re a little shady then, you ain’t gonna have much of it.”
Marian Mohamed is the associate editor of Real Change. She oversees our weekly features. Contact her at [email protected].
Read more of the Feb. 14–20, 2024 issue.