An unlikely friendship between a California paramedic and a heartbroken homeless man led to a $7 gift that turned the man’s life around. However, it was only after 12 years when they reunited that the paramedic learned of this radical transformation.
Jeanah Nomelli, now 43, first met William Levens, now 66, in 2007. William had fallen on hard times, and Jeanah’s was the friendly face he didn’t know he needed.
“My wife of 13 1/2 years had passed away,” William told The Epoch Times. “I climbed inside myself. I wanted to go to work, do anything but stay home and just be a vegetable ... [but] I began to hang out with the wrong people, using drugs.
‘An Open Ear and an Open Heart’
Back in 2007, Jeanah, while at work one day, was stretching her legs outside the ambulance at a Chevron gas station in Ceres when she heard rustling in a dumpster behind her. It was William.“We just struck up a conversation,” she said. “He had beautiful, kind eyes ... and I just started asking questions and he was kind enough to answer.”
Not long after, they both found themselves engaged in a very natural conversation. For the next several months, they found each other at the same place, at the same time, and at the same Chevron looking for each other.
Over the course of time, they developed a friendship.
William recalled that, during that time, he “didn’t want nothing to do with nobody, least of all somebody in a uniform,” but after meeting Jeanah several times, he accepted her company and the pair grew close.
“She was somebody that I would look forward to seeing ... she had an open ear and an open heart,” William said.
When winter came and freezing temperatures hit the valley, Jeanah’s husband dug into his closet and donated a jacket and boots for William. Jeanah gave the clothes to William, but after that didn’t see him again for another six months.
She only learned of what happened to him when they reconnected after that brief period of time.
“He told me he had been advocating and helping a family who found themselves homeless due to the housing crash,” Jeanah said. “Will was the kind of soul who helped this family navigate life on the streets, told them where to go for resources, where to go for safety.
“One night, one of the other transients happened to be giving this family a hard time and Will stepped in to defend them. It turned into a physical altercation.”
William, who was on probation at the time, was briefly incarcerated. Everything he owned had been stolen, including his ID card.
The $7 That Changed His Life
After he got out of jail, William told Jeanah about a $7 scheme that would get him a new ID, access to temporary housing, and temporary work assignments. This could be his ticket out of addiction and would ideally lead to a permanent job and permanent housing.Jeanah said: “I ended up having $7 in my pocket, and I never carry cash. It seemed absolutely a divine blessing to say, ‘Hey, here’s $7, and please, please, please promise me that you won’t use it on drugs.’”
This was the last time that Jeanah and William saw each other for 12 years, until, one night after a shift, when Jeanah and her partner were driving home, they pulled into a Chevron gas station to use the restroom.
“When I came out, there was a very healthy-looking man,” she recalled. “I didn’t recognize him right away, standing there with tears in his eyes just asking, ‘Do you remember me?’ with such intensity and such emotion. It took me about five seconds before I recognized those beautiful kind eyes.”
Jeanah recalled standing in the Chevron gas station with William for half an hour, “giving each other the Cliffs Notes version” of their lives since their last meeting.
“It was a rough and rocky road there for a while,” William said. “I did get the ID, I did get temporary work here and there, and I did slip a few times with drugs and stuff, but for the most part I kept my head above water.”
He found a recovery home that supported his sobriety and learned more about God.
“I learned about the good Lord and the great things He can do for us,” he said. “As far as struggling with addiction, it’s a difficult path. I know that there’s a higher power ... you’ve got to call out to Him and be honest with yourself. He'll make a way for you where it seems like there is no way.”
Meeting William unexpectedly and hearing about his transformation, Jeaneh cried the whole way home, filled with excitement and gratitude.
The Beauty in Both Worlds
Today, William lives in Modesto. He remarried on January 2020 and works alongside his wife for Roch Church, California.After turning his life around, the former homeless addict now invites other men to join his personal outreach program. He books doctors’ appointments, offers to counsel, takes people to job interviews, and guides them toward spiritual wholeness. He also runs a food ministry for the local community, feeding hundreds every day.
“He is continuing to pay it forward and is a light in so many people’s lives,” Jeanah said.
These days, Jeanah and William never go long without checking in with one another, sharing both the ups and downs of their lives.
“Oftentimes, people in Will’s position don’t want to talk to us,” Jeanah said. “There’s a disconnect between their world and ours ... he and I were able to break through that barrier, and what we were able to discover is the beauty in both worlds.
“In the world of homelessness, people are helping each other and protecting each other and advocating for each other often, I would say sometimes more than we would find in our world. If we can do a better job of loving ourselves so that we can then go out into the world and love others, that’s what’s gonna heal the planet.”
