Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 19, 1994 TAG: 9412190099
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After that happens, it's not uncommon for those who once came to RAM looking for help to return in hopes of giving something back.
Three years ago, Otelia Hogan, now 55, was given money from the emergency fund to help pay her electric bill. Her husband had just been declared disabled, but the couple had to wait a month for his first check to arrive. Her part-time telemarketing job was not enough to pay all their expenses. Without help from RAM, the power would have been cut off, Hogan said.
For the past year and a half, Hogan has been volunteering at RAM's day shelter for the homeless for two or three hours several times a week.
At first, Hogan spent her time talking to the men who came to the shelter and playing cards and checkers with them. They would talk about where they were staying, about their families and about the things that happened to them in the streets, she said. It seemed to make them feel better. Sometimes she gave advice. Sometimes she just listened. But most of the time, she prayed, she said.
Although she enjoyed listening to the shelter guests, it was time-consuming. So when Hogan got a part-time job as a companion-aide, she had to cut back on the hours she spent at RAM. Now she helps with the filing for the emergency assistance program and lends a hand in the kitchen some days.
Hogan previously had been a volunteer at the Salvation Army's battered women's shelter, but she has always had a soft spot in her heart for the homeless, she said, because she has been homeless herself.
Hogan was a model student at Lucy Addison High School before she graduated in 1958. Her father was well-respected in the community, she said, and she always felt she had to live up to his reputation. After graduation, she went to St. Paul's College in Lawrenceville to study chemistry. But after two years, she dropped out when she suddenly discovered the excitement of hanging out in the streets. It was a life of non-stop "socializing, drinking, smoking and dancing," she said. "It was like letting a dog out of a cage."
For six years, she drifted between Roanoke and New England. When she was in her mid-20s, she came back to Roanoke for good to take care of her ill mother.
Since then, Hogan has spent her time doing things for other people. She has no hobbies, she said. She prefers to spend her spare time doing errands for her patients and going to church. She hopes to go to Hollins College soon, where she wants to major in psychology.
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by CNB