Chuck.

I was looking through a couple of my old journals this evening, and I came across the one I wrote in when I was in Florida a few years back. For those of you who don't know, the year I was an AmeriCorps volunteer in Spokane, I was also volunteering on the Disaster Action Team for the American Red Cross. That happened to be the year that four hurricanes rolled through Florida, causing massive devastation and quickly depleted the national resources of trained, available disaster relief workers. Even though I was a newbie, I was deployed to Florida for a few weeks and spent most of my time paired with an amazing old man named Chuck. He was 81 years old at the time and a spitfire, but a total sweetheart with a heart of gold. He was also a retired Church of Christ minister and INCREDIBLY experienced in disaster relief, so it was a blessing in so many ways to work with him. Being a disaster worker is an exhausting experience, mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally, but it was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.

Anyway, I found this story I wrote down in my journal after a long day with Chuck, and I wanted to share it with all of you:

7:24 PM

Monday, October 11, 2004

We went out and helped Ms. W in Micanopy this morning and I have never seen anyone so happy! We only gave her $200 [as per the guidelines set in place based on her situation], but she was thrilled that she could go buy her own underwear, since hers is all still in her bedroom under a tree and completely destroyed. Can you even imagine being in a position where your only underwear was given to you by a neighbor, and you don't even have enough money to buy food, let alone new undergarments?

Today was insanely busy. We left first thing this morning for Micanopy with 2 Job Corps folks--2 black teenagers who barely said a word. I'm not sure what to think of them. Nice kids, but not very talkative. I think they struggle in more ways than I can see. So we spent time in Micanopy and were supposed to drop the Job Corps kids off and head over to Chiefland, but the office was SWAMPED!!! There were times when I was working on up to 4 cases at once. Sheer insanity. Chuck and I were both pumping out and burning through cases and clients just as fast as we could.

Tomorrow we'll be doing home visits and I can already see it's going to be a L-O-N-G day. I like working with Chuck, though--he's really cool. He told me tonight that he met a girl when he was in his 20s and fell in love but didn't want her to marry a missionary, so he was reassigned to Canada and they went their separate ways. Both were married to other people, then Chuck got divorced and the lady's husband died, and some 50+ years after they first met and fell in love and 30+ years since they'd seen each other, she wrote to him. Now they talk on the phone for 1-1 1/2 hours per night, have fallen in love, and will be married in the spring. He'll finally get to see her after Christmas when he goes to Texas to see her for 4-5 weeks. Awesome. What a beautiful story!

Anyway, he said, "I wish that for you! I wish you don't have to wait so long, but I wish you someone you can't wait to talk to at the end of the day, who wants to know about the people you work with, what you're doing, how your day went--everything." He is so cute! And I wish that, too. Especially since the little bit of that I've experienced has been incredible.

And I wish that for all of you, too. :) One of the many things I learned from this wise man during our few short weeks together. Thanks for the lesson, Chuck.