THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 4, 1995 TAG: 9508030185
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
I've got the best seat in the stadium. I'm right on the 50-yard line Mothers Inc. founder has the best seat for seeing daily miracle plays watching God make miracle play after miracle play to win this game. Some people say my life is a noble sacrifice. I say my life is a privi-lege.
Sometimes they're big miracles. Real conspicuous night-to-day ones, like when the gas station attendant just happened to hear of the homelessness of the customer in her car with three kids. The clerk mentioned Mothers Inc.
In the meantime, a good neighbor brought by money for us to rent a motel efficiency for a month for a homeless family. The homeless mother and the good neighbor passed each other, both smiling, on our front porch. Neither knew who the other was. But I knew.
Little miracles, like the abandoned, overstressed mother who called in the midst of her tears. We are mothers. We know what it feels like to be responsible for our children's lives. Sometimes we sense we are inadequate to the task. Worse, we think we are all alone in this world. Before the phone conversation was over, the young mother was laughing and promised to stay in touch. Little miracles.
Still, after 10 years of being on the 50-yard line, knowing how God blesses ``the least among us'' with miracle after miracle, I found it hard to believe he would do it for just plain us.
He spoke. ``Stand. Stand. Yet, again, stand.'' But how do you stand when the landlord and the courts say that for want of $96,000 - an impossible fortune for us - you must move on?
I was beginning to feel like the coyote in the Roadrunner cartoons - as though I had run beyond the edge of the cliff and was suspended in air. ``God, you're gonna catch us, right?''
A friend came to encourage my faith. ``Brenda, you don't have the money. Mothers doesn't have the money. But the people, many of them standing together, do. They just need to know what's happening here.'' And with the help of The Virginian-Pilot (``Activist for homeless could lose home,'' July 22) and the crew at WAVY-TV 10, the people found out.
As of this writing, the landlord gave us an extension through August. The attorneys who have volunteered their services, Huff, Poole and Mahoney, reported 55 envelopes came in on just one day. Blessing by blessing, dollar by dollar, together we have reached $25,000. Lemonade stands, rock 'n' roll bands, churches, restaurants, big people, little people: The message is, Don't give up.
No, we will not give up. There's too much work to do. Besides, where else can you get a seat on the 50-yard line to watch God make miracle plays?
Brenda McCormick
Executive Director
Mothers Inc. by CNB