For those of you who might wonder what it looks like after a devastating fire, I am posting a link to drone footage of one of the nard-hit areas near us. I have several good friends who lived in the middle of this. This is what I wrote about it.
I was working at the relief distribution center at the mall this afternoon. Dangerous for my bank account as they desperately needed socks and the Hanes store was only 2 doors down. I made 2 trips, but had to limit my purchases to what I could afford. The first time I bought a couple dozen pairs, and they went quickly.
We didn't have a flood of people, but there was a fairly steady stream throughout the day. We had a large supply of toiletries bags from Goodwill with shampoo, a bar of soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, and a single clean washcloth. We gave one to each person, or multiples if they mentioned a spouse, kid, girlfriend, etc. And bread-we had a lot of bread so it got to be kind of a joke, telling people they could have whatever they had picked out but they had to take some bread with it.
There was one young man. near closing, who looked shell-shocked, barely holding it together. He needed socks but when I showed him where they were we were completely out of men's sizes. He didn't complain, just nodded and went to look for the other things he needed. That was the reason for my second trip. I couldn't send him out of there without even a single clean pair of socks.
I just couldn't.
I ran to Hanes, grabbed what I could, and hurried back, afraid he might have given up and left, but he hadn't. I shoved a six-pack of socks into his hands and said "You look like you could use these." It was such a little thing, just a few bucks for some socks, not much more than I would spend on a latte (with tip) if I was treating myself.
It's heartbreaking. I did a little thing. A privileged-white-lady thing. I could afford it, even on my retirement-income-budget. I just wish I could do more.
There is a follow-up to this story. After my post appeared I got a private email from a friend who lives in another state. They offered to help if I would do the shopping, which I immediately agreed to, of course. So yesterday afternoon we checked with the relief center and found they were once again out of new men's socks. Thanks to the generosity of my friend we were able to deliver 8 dozen pairs of brand new socks to help with the relief efforts. Again, it's a small thing. But if you've never been that young man who was wearing the same socks for three days, count your blessings. I know I am being reminded daily to count mine.