Of lamps and crayons....

I LOVE my job! I know I say this a lot, but it always bears repeating and the main reason I love this job is that God is my partner here every single day. Today a man living in his RV at a local RV park came in needing only two main things: a lamp to read by at night and a small radio to block out other campers noise while he tried to sleep. As I flinched, thinking that we seldom have these items and not for very long if we do get them, I hoped we could find something else he might need to make up for it. So imagine my surprise when I took him back to the household area and we discovered a gooseneck lamp and a small radio on the shelf! That’s a God Shot if I ever saw one, and I see them quite frequently here at Hope House. That man left feeling very satisfied with his day!

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am a caregiver type person. In my previous life (before Hope House) I was a nurse, because I love to take care of people. My job here provides numerous opportunities to reach out with more than just tangible items; often the chance to chat, brainstorm or just listen to my clients is so fulfilling. It helps to have racks full of resource material, colleagues in various agencies around town and our very own Theresa Meurs (Hope House volunteer, and now a housing specialist for the Opportunity Council) on call. One of our clients who is a very special concern to me and now to Theresa as well, is a homeless 55 year old with mental health issues who seems fragile and lost. We are working quite diligently to get him in housing, hopefully supportive. I spent 20 minutes today listening to him talk about his younger life and his dreams and ambitions to be an architect.

It was a day for talking—everyone had a need to share or have someone hear their story. One of the early clients was a homeless man whose identification had been stolen (a common disaster!), who wasn’t sure how to go about getting a new one. Assumption Financial Assistance was able to help him with that. Another woman needed to vent about her problems with the government of Canada and her veteran’s status and the help the VA was getting for her.

In amongst all of this were the children, everything from a newborn to a 6 year old coloring one of our coloring pages. We handed out fruit snacks, crayons and hugs with abandon! Precious little faces and grins…..

I’ll say it again—I have the best job in the world.

911 and more.....

Sometimes we have to call the police or an ambulance at Hope House, and it occurs to me that those who work at the church or school (or those who attend daily Mass or school), may wonder what is going on, and why do we need the police here? I can tell you that I can probably count on my two hands the number of times we have had to call, so it is not that frequent an occurrence.

One of our first calls was for an ambulance—we had a gentleman with a seizure disorder who seized, then fell and hit his head on the desk on the way down. By the time the ambulance arrived, he was awake and talking, but they took him to the hospital for observation anyway.

“Maria” was very pregnant and had not eaten yet that day—she was short on food. She fainted while getting the hygiene items and food she so desperately needed. When the ambulance arrived, they found her awake and eating crackers and drinking juice provided by our staff.

“Tammy” was hit by a falling bookshelf that someone had leaned on. That bookshelf is now screwed into the wall! She had a bump on her head, but refused to go to the emergency room and continued shopping!

We have had several instances of clients accusing other clients of stealing from them, some true, some not. One of our elderly clients was robbed of her rent money when it fell out of her pocket—this was witnessed by several clients, and the thief was reported immediately. The police were able to locate the thief and get the money back. In another instance, a mentally ill homeless man was sure that someone was attempting to steal his phone and we called the police to help. They were able to clear it all up for him.

By far the most upsetting calls for me personally are those times when we have someone who is being loud

and verbally abusive. I always plead with them to calm down, stop yelling, and “don’t make me call the police”! This is a level of stress they don’t need in their lives. However, the safety of our staff and clients, the comfort and safety of the school and church inhabitants always comes first, so we have had to call the police perhaps 3-4 times for this reason.

Please understand that these few calls took place over 15 years! 99.9% of the time, Hope House is a very calm and happy place, full of children, laughter and joy. Sitting in my office writing this blog, I hear two women talking about the name brand clothing they had found on the racks, two children playing cars on the floor, and a couple of homeless men planning a trip to Maple Alley Inn together.

This is Hope House—a safe place, a community within a community and a wonderful and shining example of our faith.