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Now on the way from Concord to Laconia, a young mother was assaulted
by poverty, by fear, by depression, by her husband’s unfaithfulness. She was left abandoned, along with her children, her privacy bartered in exchange for a welfare check.
Too weary to go on, she lay, waiting for help.
Some good church people came by and said, “Get up and get going, God loves you so you shouldn’t worry.”
Some nice community people remained aloof and whispered, “Don’t play with her children. She’s on welfare, you know.”
Then a woman from up the street came in, a woman with a history that others whispered about, an outcast who had no husband and whose children named no father.
She didn’t give advice and so in a subtle way, condemn. She said, instead, “Come and have coffee with me,” and “Let’s go shopping today” and “Show me how you made that casserole.” In doing so she helped to bind the wounds, and restore faith and self-esteem, until the young mother was able to be on her way again.
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