Page 85 - MLD Book

began to take advantage of us, even with a sense of entitlement, and we finally had to kick them out. This went on for months, however. We learned a lesson about the difference between true help and enablement!
One scary additional story about our involvement with the Well and the homeless who “resided” at the underpass: Lee received a call from Kim that there was a fire at the top of “our” viaduct, and when we went to investigate, there was Jennie half passed out from drugs sitting on the sidewalk, barefoot. Seems she had shot herself up on what we think was heroin. I learned you have to heat it up before you inject it, and in the course of doing so, she became under the influence and left the fire burn. It burned down her tent and everything in it. I took off my shoes and socks and put them on her cold feet, and shortly thereafter she was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Those shoes were unfortunately the ones I played the organ in! Added note – a few months later, Amanda also caught herself on fire and half her face was burned away before she realized what was happening. Drugs and awareness do not make good companions!
Shadow enjoyed her year at GW, and Nicole is now a high school senior. Granddaughter Lindsey landed a job teaching third grade in a Lebanon Junction school, with her diploma fresh in hand. Shelby quit Bungalow’s and landed at Norton Brownsboro with Erin. And on June 14, Bennett was born to Erin and Eddie. So with Lilah and Bennett in the fold, the dynanics of family gatherings changed dramatically, and it was so much fun. Of course fast forward soon to 2020, and its technological intercourse rather than hugs! Ugh.
2020
So here we are in the present, after a long journey through time that began way back in 1964. With part of December yet to be written, I can safely say that this was both the worst
year ever and one of the best years ever. How can that be? Read on!
The year began routinely, with me doing my usual M T Th food and clothing duties, buying food with Jim, watching Bennett with Maria every Wednesday, getting together with family on occasion to watch the little ones grow – all things more or less taken for granted and enjoyed as part of an exciting and full life. The only real electric moment of the beginning of 2020 came on March 1, when I went out to the car to leave and a black man was seated in the passenger seat, going through my glove compartment. I didn’t see him until I opened the door. I reacted, not with fear, but with anger that he was in there and screamed, “What are you doing in my car?” It scared HIM and he ran away. No problem, although in retrospect, there could have been big problems!
Problem? Not with somebody in my car! BUT one of the biggest problems of our lives, still ongoing and getting worse, surfaced the very next day, March 11. For the first time in my life, I heard the words CORONA VIRUS. It was serious enough that things were being shut down at a rapid rate, including churches for the following Sunday. We had meetings all week to determine what this would mean for our food and clothing ministries. It was reported that it would be safe to be outside in this pandemic (hate that word), so we volunteers, together with Lee, determined that we would shift to the outside for food distribution. No clients would be allowed inside, and only a small number of volunteers would be serving at outside tables and at the gate., On March 16, we launched a new look ministry! It worked, and we all thought this was a very temporary solution, and at the most, we would do this for a couple of weeks. Nine months later, we are still doing it! It was 28 degrees on December 1, we have moved inside for the food bag operation, serving the