Saturday, December 15, 2007

A Question of Need

We are parked for less than five minutes in the Long Beach Wal-Mart
when two women drive up and ask for money for food. One, the
passenger, is in her 60s. The other, her daughter, is driving the car.
The daughter, Jessica, says she and her mom just escaped from their
home, where a drunken, enraged dad/husband is endangering their lives
and those of two other children/grandchildren.

Jessica says a domestic violence center has put them up in a local
hotel for the night, but will help them no further until Monday. This
is Friday. They want money for food.

I give them three bags of food.

Now they want money for gas, so they can go to San Diego to stay with
family.

I give them no money for gas and tell them, instead, to wait until
Monday when the "system" will take care of them. The enraged man, I
tell them, will know to look for them with family. Jessica changes her
story and says they now plan to go to Mexico to her grandmothers. Her
father, she says, does not know her grandmother.

I am troubled.

Will the system work? Did I do the right thing? What would Jesus do?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Aunt Nan,

As you know I have been there. Ask yourself what would I have done if this was my Maggie?

You were here for me in a time of need not to long ago. Did u give me money? No, but I didn't ask either. What you brought was dinner, open non judging ears, and a shoulder to cry on. The greatest gifts! The gifts that God would have provided.
I beleve you did the right thing.

Love and miss u
Maggie