I want to share an experience of a very sad accident
but the overwhelming generosity of people.
Carmen the 30 year-old cook for the volunteers and Sisters for the past
6 years fell at night last week into an uncovered drainage ditch and partially
severed her spinal cord. She was
completely paralyzed for a week until surgery and now can feel painful stimuli
to her feet. We have hope she will
recover some movement in her legs.
She was transferred to a local hospital for rehab but
returned to the distant hospital due to pneumonia. She is still numb from the chest down and
fighting the pneumonia at the writing of this blog. She is the single mother of two children. She
is a very nice woman and a good mother. Almost
daily she would “sneak” me leftover food from lunch so I would not have to cook
my own dinner. We are all so shocked that this could happen.
She had health insurance only until the end of the
month as she lost her job last month.
The mission has less income and half the employees were let go last
month. She was transferred to a private
hospital so she could have the operation she needed. The expenses were supposed to be paid for by
the health insurance she has until the 30th of this month but they
only paid some of the cost. She had a
$600 bill after a week (nothing by US standards of health costs but a lot to
people who earn $300 a month if they have work). She had also co- signed a loan for a friend
who did not pay back the loan so Carmen lost all of her severance pay to pay
the bank loan. Thus, she is without
work, has no money, no health insurance soon and rent and food to buy for her
children as well as a very long, expensive rehabilitation time.
This is where the incredible generosity of the town of
Guadalupe comes in. The people made
photos of Carmen with her neck brace in the hospital bed that I am including in
this blog.
They put the photo on cardboard
boxes and walked the streets in the nearby larger town. They collected $834 in coins in one day which
is pretty incredible for a small group of neighbors and kids. The mother of one of the Sisters Carmen
cooked for lent her the total amount to pay the hospital bill. Also, one of the husbands of a friend of
Carmen, who has a job has offered to pay the first month to continue her health
insurance. There is a box for donations
here in the Clinic and money is put in everyday. The volunteers have also been extremely
generous. Carmen has never lacked for someone to stay with her in the
hospital. The whole town is pulling for
her.
Time and time again in mission I see the overwhelming
generosity of materially poor people but people so rich in: concern for others,
willingness to give the little they have and so giving of their time to help
others.
