him. and she brought us together. . you know, it s an amazing thing because you re talking about it from the statement of what maurice did for you. even though most of us would, in reading the story say, wow, laura what you did for maurice, and had she just given you a couple of bucks and said, kid, go get something to eat, things would have been different, wouldn t they? definitely, if she d given me a couple of bucks and said, here, get me something to eat, my life would have been different. i grew up with drubbig addicts and drug dealers. and i lived two blocks from here my life was chaos and that s all i knew. when i met laura my whole life changed and changed for the better. mike: did you have a hard time thinking this lady is actually going to take me to eat and she s going to walk in central park with me and take me to a place and buy me the first steak i ve ever had in my life? i mean, what were you thinking as a 11-year-old boy in the
mike: have you ever had a meal with your own family, your parents. never at a table. never. from that point on that s the first time i d dreamed of doing anything in life and today i have a small apartment in manhattan and i don t have a living room, i have a dining room with a long table. (laughter) and well, with seven kids, you need a long table, maurice. there s a great story out of the book that was very touching. and laura you asked if you could help him have lunch at school. because you know, that was something his only meal he really good. wanted to have a lunch in a brown bag. explain why that mattered to you that it came in a brown bag? well, the reason why i believe that it came in a brown bag and mattered to me. when i went to school i d often go to school and see all the kids coming in with their lunch in their brown paper bag and for me, that i knew someone cared about them. and i knew someone loved them.
invisible thread and what s interesting, i received so many e-mails from so many people saying i have this special relationship with this person, but i have never known the definition of it. and basically, what you ve done with your book, is define my relationship. we were meant to be in our in each other s lives. and it wasn t an invisible thread that connected us. yeah, it s speaking of birthdays, at one of your birthdays. oh. mike: maurice was there to offer a toast. it is very special. we have a little tape on it, let s watch. and at that moment she saved my life, cause i was going down the road road, you know, my mother, bless her soul, my mother died, and my mother was on drugs at the time. and the lord sent me an angel. and my angel was laura and i m so glad i met her.
passed a 11-year-old boy maurice, who said he was hungry. he asked for money for food. she kept walking, but then stopped, walked back and walked back to maurice, and she offered to take him to mcdonald s, and. she knew he needed more than a meal. for the next four years, laura and maurice met for lunch. and today after 20 years, they re like family. the book is now the invisible thread. . thank you for being here, laura and maurice of. [applause] this is one of the most touching, and refreshing and inspiring stories i ve read. the book is fantastic and i thought, if you made this up, i wouldn t have believed it, but it s a true story. you walked by this kid a few
blocks from our studio here in new york and he said i d like change, i m hungry. and you walk by and you turned around. why? why did you turn around? i turned around because what resonated with me were the words, i m hungry. i d never seen a 11-year-old panhandler before and so i just couldn t believe he said those word. so i went back and i said to him, you know what? we ll go to mcdonald s, but it s interesting, i think that our lives take us in directions and sometimes there are no accidents. you know, when i was 25 years old, my mother died when she was 47 at a very young age. she was my rock and what comforted me throughout my entire adult life was the fact that she was this angle that overlooked me and watched over me and i absolutely believe that she knew that i needed something more in my life. and she knew that maurice needed someone to care for