A place of safety

What a busy week this was. We had a large number of families arrive from Louisiana and Texas.

One of my clients was a helping professional. She and her husband had just arrived with her extended family from the Louisiana coast. After about 45 minutes of talking and completing our forms, I handed them the Red Cross credit/debit card and told them how much they would receive. As I went over the rules and limitations for its use, she suddenly stopped and looked at me with a pained face. “I don’t know when we will be able to pay this back,” she told me. (The phrase “credit card” can be misleading and is not really appropriate for what they are.) “No, I said, this money is a gift from all the American people who care. This is not money from the government. And you do not have to pay any of it back.”

As we approached completion of our time together, the woman began to cry. Here she was, being a good soldier and shepherding this extended family of three households to a place of safety. Her home is gone. But everyone is together and healthy. She could finally relax. As she relaxed, she could afford the experience of her emotions and the memory of the people she had worked with who had lost contact with her. The moment of arriving at a place of safety, she would have to face the emotions that bubble up from the deeper parts of her heart. Red Cross will provide that place of safety for her, for up to two weeks (and possibly a little longer) and bring her into contact with organizations that will provide her and her family with free clothing and food.

Now is her time to nurture herself to gain strength for the difficult challenge ahead for herself, her family, and her profession when she returns home.

Future blog entries:

Who’s been naughty and who’s been nice?
Fractured stereotypes