In a world amidst such crisis comes the little things that give meaning to the beauty in the day. We at FLOC work with a most loving, struggling, enduring family. Mom takes care of two highly autistic children, one that is nonverbal and needs consistent medical care, while the family car breaks down with the same amount of consistency. Dad is in and out of the hospital with major heart issues. Mom wrote me on Thursday of last week saying she just didn’t know how to go on.
This past Friday, Doug and I packed up a huge cooler full of our freezer items. We loaded up our trunk, and collected $200 in gift cards. Then we ran over to the Dayton Mall Nonprofit Co-Op, where we were finally united with the incredibly gifted and philanthropic Karen Kelly Brown. Karen, the Director of Marketing at the Dayton Mall has collaborated with ten local nonprofits in order to gather and disperse resources to thousands of people in need. Karen, a most special heart in this storm of today, filled our entire car with groceries, household products, with love and care for this family who needs it so much.
Then we drove to Kris Horlacher’s home. Kris is the amazing force behind Shoes 4 the Shoeless, an organization that takes care of thousands of people in the area, providing shoes and whatever resource necessary to make the day a better one, with such profound joy and respect in the moment. Kris had a beautiful bag full of shoes for the entire family sitting in her magical front porch, adorned by flowers that gave your heart peace.
Then it was on to our destination. The dearest mom in question actually had to go to the hospital for high blood pressure. It was her daughter that greeted us, indicating that we put our collection on the corner of her lawn. We covered her lawn. There was not a patch of grass that wasn’t full of gifts of hope, of love, of sustenance in this crazy world. The daughter’s mouth just fell open, inch by inch as we decorated her front lawn with the compassion of a community that knows no bounds.
I think that’s the story that needs to be told today. Thank you Dayton for embracing your own, and doing it with a heart full of promise.