Many people avert their eyes when they walk by the homeless.
Hanne Mintz opens her hand, her heart and her home.
Four years ago, Mintz, 68, found Ryan, 20, living on a park bench near her house, and after they bonded over her bullmastiff, she took Ryan out to breakfast and offered him a bed in her home.
“Maybe I’m an ax murderer,” Ryan said.
“Maybe I’m a child molester,” Mintz shot back.
“You have to trust yourself and take those chances,” Mintz said. “The worst thing that can happen is it doesn’t work out.”
Ryan, who had no family to fall back on, had come from New Hampshire to pursue acting. Mintz gave him a job operating audio software in the translation services company she founded 20 years ago and still runs.
Today, Ryan is doing stand-up comedy in Boston, and he’s in touch with Mintz regularly.
The fact that she took Ryan in didn’t surprise Mintz’s daughter, Marina, who says her own friends routinely still come over to hang out with Mintz, as they have since they were kids. Mintz also loves to go salmon fishing and camping and is president of a bullmastiff club.
Her warmth emerges the moment you meet her — she is a hugger, and her eyes sparkle with interest in others.
Story continues after the jump
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