God Bless

Real truths can only be revealed through the real lives of real people. Yesterday I met Sherri, (we'll call her Sherri for the sake of protecting her privacy) an elderly mother who lives with her husband and daughter in modest trailer in southern Mississippi. Both Sherri and her husband are on disability, a real challenge to make ends meet when its become harder and harder to stretch only a few hundred dollars a week with no real additional income. On top of that, its almost impossible to transition out of the trailer into an apartment when starting rent now averages over $800 a month, reasonable for Washington D.C. but out of sight for Biloxi where working class income levels lag behind the staggering cost of living increases in the wake of Katrina.

Unbelievably, that's not the worst part. Since moving into her trailer about a year ago, Sherri's health has gone from mediocre to worse. Nosebleeds, coughing, and itchy skin are daily irritants to her family, but the worst has been the tumors near her husband's eyes, rendering one of them virtually useless. A possible cause, formaldehyde chemicals in the trailer's structure, has been a source of constant agitation since moving in. The choice is difficult: move out, and away from the chemicals, with nowhere to go, or stay and try to weather the hazards. I felt as if we, as a society, were backing our own people into a corner with nowhere to go.

In spite of this, her spirits have not been crushed. All she wants is some skin crème to alleviate her pain, and the help to get her family once and for all out of the trailer. "We going to get out of here," she said. All she wants is the chance to make her and her family's lives better, to pull them out of the FEMA system and all on their own. All she wants is a hand up, not a hand out.

I'm inspired by her continued faith in God that all will be well, no matter how high the artificial barriers that have been put in her way by bureaucrats and price gougers. As I left, thanked her for her hospitality and reminded her that we couldn't promise anything, but that we'd try to get her story out and see to it that she didn't fall between the cracks. She asked, "Are you mama and daddy still living?" When I replied that the were, she said, "God bless you, and God bless them. Tell them to keep on living." Yes indeed.

Eric Berkey
Columbus School of Law, '10
The Catholic University of America