The fruit stall man · Queen Vic Market

Where & when

• Queen Victoria Market · Melbourne · Australia ~2013 fruit and veg stall near the sheds

About them then

Uncle Gio · about 49 then

A fruit and vegetable stallholder with a grey moustache and arms like tree trunks. He wore a faded blue cap, sang along to the radio in Greek, and shouted his prices as if he were giving the stuff away.

Who I was then

The backpacker with a cracked phone who slept on the market's loading bay for two nights.

Why I'm writing

To say thank you · Just hoping my words reach them

I arrived in Melbourne with almost no money, and my first week's job fell through. At five one morning I was sitting outside the market with my bag when you pushed a crate into my arms and said, Carry this. By noon I had a week of work, a hot meal and a very sore back. You never asked for my story. When I left for Sydney, you pressed a bag of fruit into my hands for the bus.

Passed on by 0 · reached step 0 · 0 keeping an eye out

Could this letter be about you? This is me