Sheltered

There’s a Red Cross shelter behind our house, across the ditch and at the Lutheran church. I called them today to see what they need.

Martha sent me some money and I added to it so I could go to the store and get them things.

I got:
2 big boxes of diapers
1 big box of wipes
9 boxes of Kleenex
4 boxes of maxipads (misc types)
1 box of pantiliners
4 boxes of tampons (misc sizes)

Didn’t get Advil or Tylenol; I’ll do that next time, I guess. Or encourage other people to do that. Not sure how the Red Cross would feel about people bringing in medication, though.

Helen helped me carry it in. Two women (about my age and socio-economic level, I’m guessing) from Slidell just cried as people brought stuff in. There was a HUGE pile of things in the back corner, and that’s where Helen and I put it all. Helen helped carry diapers and understood without being told to put the diapers with the other diapers and to put the kleenex with the other kleenex. The two women just kept saying, “You people are just amazing. You are saving us so much money. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Another woman was right inside the door when I got there, with a baby about Alice’s age. She said, “Oh! Just my baby’s size!” when I came in with a big box of Size 4 Huggies. So I introduced myself, told her I lived across the ditch, and gave her my card. Said that I have a 13-month-old and we’d love to play if she needs a break. She said she’d probably take me up on that. Her name is Keoki or Keoka, and she’s from New Orleans, and her home was “flooded pretty bad.” She evacuated as soon as they told her to, and brought all four of her kids with her.

It was hard to tear Helen away, but she was quickly running out of steam and about to crash, even though she insisted she wanted to play with the other kids there.

Back in the car, I sobbed. And called Martha so she’d get the full report while I was still overwhelmed by it. It was an incredible experience, and something I definitely want to do again and again.

*sniff*

Then I came home and hugged my Jerry and hugged my Alice and said a prayer of thanks that we are so blessed.