Bittersweet

I went to a Board meeting today for Youth and Family, whose new shelter has been featured repeatedly on this blog. Right after we wrapped up the meeting, someone came in and yelled "Hey, they're tearing down the old building!" Which was something we'd been waiting for, and had been delayed a bit by crummy weather. But that has been our agency for thirty years. Despite the fact that the Christmas tree fell through the floor a few years ago, and parts of the kitchen had been condemned and we were putting band-aids on bleeding wounds . . . it was a refuge for thousands of children. We love our new building, but it was hard to watch the old one come down.




That used to be one of the girl's rooms.

So, the end of an era. We love the new, it's hard to see the old, no matter how decrepit, go.

On a lighter note, I was visiting with a couple of the Board members and got this story. Last week, we had a snowstorm. The weather, roads, and visibility were all crap. C was at a medical clinic and they asked her to go across the street to the hospital for a procedure, for which she would need an epidural. She said she'd walk and they advised her to drive . . .??? Anyway, she pulled out of the clinic, which is on a hill, slid, there was a car coming down and she couldn't stop, it honked, she hit the rear end of it. She got out, the other driver got out, and it was another Board member, J. They've been friends for years, so the first thing they did was hug. Damage to the vehicles was almost non-existent, so they got back in them and went about their business.

Meanwhile, C goes to the hospital and, in her words, "have my butt up in the air so they can figure out where to put the needle," and the woman administering the needle is telling the nurse how she just witnessed an accident outside and "they HUGGED!" So C, butt in the air, says "Yeah, that would be me." I have to say, we got a good cackle out of it.