Angel’s Highway for Ivy House

It seemed more difficult than it really was. Most things did, unless of course there was some kind of human or sentient influence that made it so.

With a sigh, she moved her thoughts away from conjecture and back into her job.

“Hello?”

“This is Angel’s Highway, how may I help you?”

“Um….”

“Yes?” she asked again after the voice trailed off into silence. She could do patience, this whole job was about patience.

“I was wondering…if…there was…”

She tried her best not to count the seconds that were ticking by. It wasn’t the caller’s fault that they were so nervous, it was a common problem with those who called this service. They were always afraid of actually asking for anything. Almost as if they felt that they really shouldn’t have called in the first place.

People asking for help, people who actually needed that help, were often very timid about asking for said help.

“I was wondering…ifyouhadanyopeningsintheIvyHouseFoundation.”

Marie was very skilled at working out what people had said when they were trying to get everything out as fast as they could, so she didn’t need to ask for her caller to repeat herself.

With a few quick moments of her fingers over her keyboard, she pulled up the current vacancy lists within Ivy House. Good, there were several vacancies but it would depend on a few things…

“Is there a specific number of people that would be in your party?”

“Um…just about…maybe…three?”

“Any particular needs in that group: age, illness, etc?”

“N-no, just one adult a-and two pre-teens.” came the timid reply.

“Is there a specific locale that you would like to be in? We have room in a few country areas and several small towns as well as one or two with open room in the city.”

The rest of the conversation went fairly well, though Marie could tell that the woman on the phone was still nervous there was an undertone that she couldn’t help but smile at.

It was always a wondrous thing when you heard the moment someone’s hope was reborn.

image: Lyssa Medana a small alleyway in Whitby

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Written for this week’s Monday prompt from Light and Shade Challenge: http://lightandshadechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/light-and-shade-challenge-monday-23.html

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Love In the Strangest of Places

What would you do on your wedding day? Do you get married at a historical site, in a registrar’s office or at a court house? Do you get married in a temple or a synagogue or a chapel or other religious place? do you then have a wedding party luncheon and a reception in the evening?

I am not married. Out of my eight siblings, five of them have married and each ceremony and/or reception was a little different. But none of them held a reception or luncheon quite like this one.

Picture this:

A beautiful bride, resplendent in her gown, her hair done just right, makeup stunning and jewelry elegant. Her groom, handsome in his suit, hair and beard trimmed neatly, waiting patiently for his bride to place her hand in his.

They say their ‘I do’s and still in their wedding clothes begin to hand out sandwiches to those who are homeless in several parks near where the wedding ceremony takes place.

What?

Why are they doing that? That’s a little odd. Shouldn’t they change first at least?

Not the newly married Deven and Ressurrection Graves. This couple has an unusual beginning. They met in a homeless shelter in Washington, D.C. Deven courted and wooed Ressurrection over the course of several months before she agreed to become Mrs. Graves and they were married two years later on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which is also the same anniversary of when Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his ‘I have a dream’ speech.

This couple still works with the homeless to this day through a non-profit organization that they founded. It’s called Glory Soldiers Global.

You might be wondering why I’m blogging about this so late at night. I was just sending a last email before bed to several members of my church, once logging out I did a quick browse of the current news available and stumbled across an article of this couple (http://www.today.com/news/couple-who-met-homeless-shelter-pay-it-forward-help-others-2D12089799). Their story touched my heart and I knew that I had to write about it before I went to bed while it was still fresh in my mind. I have a bad habit about forgetting to do something with it comes to writing sometimes. (Which isn’t good as that is kind of my job outside of being a homemaker.)

Even if their story doesn’t catch your interest the way it did mine, I hope that you take a moment to check out the webpage for their non-profit Glory Soldiers Global (http://www.glorysoldiersglobal.org/).

And the next time you see someone who doesn’t have a steady roof over their head, remember this: they can become anyone if only they’re given a little bit of hope for their future.