Kálmán Sütö. Image, Adam Ramsay, cc2.0.
In Budapest, I had coffee with Kálmán Sütö, a homeless man who sells a magazine outside the country’s parliament, and with a friend who translated. This is what he told me.
“I was a driver and many other things. Originally I was working on these old engines. I worked at a car plant outside Budapest. I was about to get a permanent post. But I had a stroke ten years ago. I have three young children but we separated [...] and now they are in care. They are still young children, they are in care. They are now in foster care and the foster parents are very good and they are all together and they have a good life.
“I am allowed to see them once a month. But they don’t live in Budapest but from time to time they come with their foster parents and we go on a tour – we go to the parliament or the zoo or the circus. The main thing is they keep them very well. They learn German. I suppose I couldn’t have given them such a good life that they have now. They are lucky now that they [...] got into the care system. There are always lucky breaks even in bigger misfortunes.
