Hi Everyone! Being a part of the committee that organizes, welcomes and gets to know the homeless women who grace our church each year is a wonderful experience filled with joy, excitement, poignancy and tears.
We wanted to share this experience with all of you and hope that you will follow along for the next two weeks as we - myself Tandy Graham, co-coordinators Jill Maxwell, Nancy Templin and our resident resume writer/ "head of personnel" Paulette Purgason - share our experiences and thoughts.
Our guests arrived last night around 6 PM with all their belongings in suitcases and plastic bags, every one of them as unique and precious as God made them. Some had smiles on their faces, some were hesitant. All were a bit uncertain but very grateful. We had several greeters ready to help them bring in their things and get settled. The Sisters small group had arranged the Fellowship Hall the day before into a warm and welcoming environment with each of the four classrooms set up as bedrooms, three beds in each, with beds made and baskets of toiletries collected by Emily McCormick from so many generous parishioners and lovingly put together with pretty tissue and bows by Camie and Chandler Hobson with help from Mom Cyndie, their third year in a row. I swear the Sisters even managed to color coordinate the bedding in each room that was so graciously loaned by so many of you and put it on the wonderful new air mattresses donated anonymously by two church angels.
We gathered together with the ladies and explained the guidelines and schedules that we need them to follow and then the greeters walked them into the CLC and showed them where the bathrooms and showers are located and into the parlor where the fireplace was blazing and where the kitchen and dining room are located. Boy Scout Troop 164 led by Peets Guice who had been cooking wonderful smelling cajun sausage, beans and rice for two days were anxious to help. The tables were set with festive napkins and tablecloths and the Scouts were eager to carry their plates for them to their tables. The women were hungry and quiet and tired. Grace was said by one of the Scouts and dinner was enjoyed by all. The dessert cart was a special treat as a Scout wheeled it in and served each guest. I told them not to get too used to the service; they'd be on their own after this meal!!
After dinner, some of the women showered; some went to their rooms; all were quiet. Let me introduce them to you if I can remember them all:
Annie- quiet and reserved and with us last year. Jill and Paulette and I were all happy and sad at the same time to see her. She says "I'm better this year" and we hope so. She is ex-armed services, Navy, I think, very articulate and loves to iron.
Helen - perhaps the oldest; strong faith, dressed, waiting for coffee and ready to go when I arrived at 5:30 this morning.
Dana - long blond hair, very grateful, from Charlotte. Was in a trolley accident two weeks ago and still experiencing back pain. Wonderful southern accent.
Sadia - pronounced with the accent on the "i" - from London and has a slight English accent. Been in the states 12 years.
Fran - tall, in charge! Was the primary speaker at the evening meeting and real disappointed she's going to miss "Dancing with the Stars". Definitely a big personality.
Wanda - Fran's sidekick, quiet and a bit sullen at dinner but more cheerful this morning.
Faith - tall, always with a knit cap on. Haven't seen her smile yet. Very hesitant and cautious. We'll make a smile a personal goal of ours.
Carol - quiet, nice smile; don't know much about her yet. She was very pleased this morning when I remembered her name
Chanie - 21, 24th of 24 siblings!!! Lost three brothers in August - we don't know how. Had on red eyeshadow this morning!
Nancy - short, straight white hair - told us she's a mezzo-soprano; eager to go to choir practice and played some hymns on the piano last night while Katelyn, Paulette, myself and one other - sorry, can't remember who- joined in.
I don't swear that I have them all correct but I hope my co-authors will help me on this if I don't!
We only had 10 our first night. One is no longer in the program and the other has cancer and is in the hospital undergoing radiation. I can't get her off my mind even though I don't know who she is. We should be getting two more tonight.
This morning I arrived at 5:30 and woke all 13 sleeping beauties except Helen who was up, dressed and waiting for coffee and ready to go. Norma Lefler and Wally French arrived soon after with a wonderful breakfast of fruit, sausages, and casseroles which everyone enjoyed - except Helen.
WR Purgason had arrived quite early to drive, so he and Helen enjoyed a long conversation in the parlor over coffee. When I came in to tell her breakfast was ready, she said because she had no teeth she would just have coffee. I served her some soft egg casserole but that didn't work. She said she could eat oatmeal but we couldn't find any. She wondered if we might have something like Ensure. Gale Kinney who was helping with breakfast and driving remarked aside to me that she had eaten dinner with Helen the night before and she had eaten very little, so Gale offered to make a trip to the store to get her some Ensure and oatmeal for other mornings. She also bought her some yogurt and it's in the frig labeled "for Helen". Thanks, Gale.
The hardest thing for me this whole time was being firm and saying no to some things that came up in order not to set the precedent that we would do anything for them that they asked. As we learned from social worker Wanda Alexander at our poverty seminar and from previous experience last year, that precedent can lead to demands later from the women that we begin to resent. That's when you have to pull back and not let your heart get too involved although inside you are mush and want to do everything you can. One small altercation came up last night when one resident wanted a fan on in the room and the other did not. Katelyn Gordon, who was one of the chaperones last night along with Beverly Davis and Phyllis Edwards, firmly told them both that that was something that they would simply have to work out themselves and apparently they did. Annie wanted to iron her clothes and I had neglected to ask for an iron/ironing board like we had last year so Mary Ramsey left to get one. We knew from last year how important that was to Annie. Gale went and got Ensure for Helen because that was real important, too. So we made some judgements - there are just some things that you know are needs, not wants and you do them. You have to judge what isn't, steel yourself and then say "no" or "maybe tomorrow we'll do that".
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