Today got off to a rocky start. I walked into the kitchen at 7:15am, and the mood was very somber. I noticed that Bones and Larry, two of the key people at Love & Care, were serving breakfast, and Janet was nowhere to be found. I asked, “Where’s Janet (the boss)?” Bones turned to me and said, “Janet’s dad passed away this morning.” We knew that he was not doing very well – lung cancer – but he was supposed to live a few more weeks. So, everyone there was heartbroken for Janet – none of us knew her dad, but all of us respect Janet and had sympathy for her. Please pray for her and her family.
The breakfast crowd was much lighter than yesterday, but we still served about 75 people. After breakfast, we began preparations for the lunch crowd. Since Janet wasn’t around, we were a little discombobulated, but we managed to put it together. Lacee (26 years old) really came through – she knew what to do. We also got help from another volunteer, Keith Jenkins. Everyone seemed to step up and take on more responsibility.
Then, before we served lunch, another member of our team, Anthony, had to leave because he was not feeling well. So, we were really short-handed. Fortunately, Keith agreed to come back and bring his son to help serve, and thankfully, he is a man of his word. We had a really big lunch crowd! We didn’t have a single break in the line for 45 minutes. I think that we probably served far more than 200.
Since Anthony was ill, I was given one of his post-lunch responsibilities – cleaning the restrooms! I must admit, I haven’t cleaned restrooms in a while, but it came back to me pretty quick. Much to my surprise, the restrooms were pretty clean – I really thought they would be extremely dirty, but they weren’t!
After restroom duty, Lacee asked me to help her make the salad for tomorrow’s lunch – and yes, I washed my hands really good! I cut up vegetables, and we got the salad ready to go. That was the last task of the day.
I went over to the food pantry to ask Larry if he needed any help, and he said that they were caught up. So, I left a little earlier today. Again, with the death of Janet’s father, everyone was heavyhearted, and once we finished serving lunch and cleaning up, I think that all of us took a deep breath and were glad that we survived without our leader.
Blessings, Kris