“It is,” Ann joined in.
But despite the pleasure it gave Mary to pursue her project, she was feeling the pressure of trying to hold down several physically demanding jobs and look after the children’s needs, as well as drive around most of the night picking up and delivering food. She had several volunteers, and she was grateful for every one of them. But her list was growing longer and the demands were increasing.
“You really are going to have to have help,” Bev told her firmly. “You need someone to help you coordinate all this.”
“Matt made a computer program,” Mary began.
“You need an organization to sponsor what you’re doing, Mary,” came the quiet reply. “You’re going to fold up if you keep trying to do it all by yourself.”
“But I don’t know any organizations,” she said heavily.
“I do,” Bev replied. “The head of the local food bank has been in touch with me. That article they did about you in the morning paper has gained some interest from some important people around the city. I’ve been asked to introduce you to the food bank manager tomorrow. Can you get off an hour early and meet me here?”
Mary was dumbfounded. “He wants to meet…me?”
Bev smiled. “You’re an inspiration to all of us, a woman in your circumstances who’s willing to give time and money she doesn’t have to help people less fortunate than she is.”
She shook her head. “Anybody else would have done the same thing.”
“Not in a million years,” Bev said quietly. “Will you come?”
Mary sighed. “Okay. I’ll be here at four, is that all right?”
Bev grinned. “Just right!”
The manager of the City Food Bank, Tom Harvey, was tall and elegant, a soft-spoken gentleman with a warm smile and kind dark eyes.
“I’m very pleased to meet you, Mrs. Crandall,” he said when he shook Mary’s hand. “I must say, you’ve come as a surprise to all of us. I didn’t really believe the story in the paper until I talked to Bev. So many times, reporters exaggerate the truth. But in your case, I think the story was actually an understatement. I’m amazed at what you’ve done on your own initiative.”
“It’s tiring, but it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my life,” Mary told him. “I enjoy every minute of it.”
“So I’ve been told.” He frowned. “But your list of participating restaurants is growing bigger by the day, and even with your volunteers, you’re not going to be able to keep up this pace.”
“I’m beginning to realize that,” Mary had to admit. She looked up at him curiously. “Do you have any suggestions?”
“Yes, I do. I’d like to consider adding your project under our program and putting you in charge of it. You’d work part-time, but it would be a paid job.”
Mary felt the blood drain out of her face. It seemed almost too good to be true. “You’re joking.”
He shook his head. “I assure you, I’m not. Your program is unique, and it’s doing a lot of good. I want to see it continue. I want to see you continue,” he emphasized with a smile. “With three children to support and your full-time cleaning job, and this, I feel that you must be stretched pretty thin.”
“I’m almost transparent,” she confessed with a smile. “But that wouldn’t stop me from doing it.”
He nodded. “I thought you were that sort of person. There’s a pilot program in California which does much the same manner of food rescue that you’re doing. I’d really like to fly you out there and take a look at it, and see what you think. If you like it, we can expand your project and put it in place here.”
Mary was thinking. Her mind was whirling. She could do this with professional help on the organizational level. She could do it part-time as a salaried employee and cut her cleaning jobs in half. She’d be able to spend more time with the children. They might be able to afford to rent a house, even buy a car. It was overwhelming.
“You haven’t answered,” Tom Harvey said gently.
She smiled from ear to ear. “I’m speechless,” she admitted. “I’d like very much to see the California program and make my decision afterward.”
“Great!” he exclaimed. “Then we’ll get the ball rolling!”
Mary took Matt up on his offer to keep the children over a weekend, while she flew to San Diego. Although money wasn’t an issue since the City Food Bank covered all her travel expenditures, she was nervous about the trip. However, Matt assured her that she was going to do just fine. The kids kissed her goodbye and told her not to worry. Matt gave her a speaking look, because he knew she’d worry anyway. He’d given her both his home and cell phone numbers, to make sure she could reach him whenever she wanted to check on the children. It made her feel better.
When she got to San Diego, she checked into the nice motel they’d put her up in and took a cab to the food bank office. There, she met a live wire of a woman named Lorinda who ran the food rescue program for the food bank there. It was similar to Mary’s, except that it was much more efficient. There was a special unit of volunteers who made the rounds of the restaurants to pick up food, and a separate unit that had panel trucks with which to make the deliveries. It worked like clockwork, and served many shelters.
“We’re adding to our suppliers all the time,” Lorinda said with a contagious smile. “It’s time-consuming and we spend a lot for gas, but the program is very successful. It’s lucky that we have plenty of volunteers. I’m amazed at what you’re able to do with so few people.”
“Yes,” Mary agreed. “Imagine what I could do with a setup like yours!”
The other woman just smiled. “We have the advantage of a comfortable budget and people with great organizational skills.”
“I’ve been offered both,” Mary said thoughtfully. “And I believe I’m going to accept them.”
Two weeks later, Mary was officially on the staff of the food bank as a part-time employee in charge of food rescue.
She sat at a desk in the shelter and used the phone excessively in the first week on the job, setting up even more restaurants to be clients of the food bank. She was also trying to keep the cleaning jobs she’d had for so many years. The stress of it all suddenly caught up with her early one morning after she’d dropped the kids off at school and John at a nearby day-care center with a woman she trusted.
She was walking into the food bank office when she felt something like a blow to her chest. She saw the floor coming up to meet her. Everything went black.
She came to in a hospital bed with Matt sitting beside her in full uniform, except for his hat, which was on the floor beside him. He looked worn and worried.
Her eyes opened slowly and she blinked. “What happened?” she asked weakly. She looked around. “Where am I?”
His eyebrows lifted above wide dark eyes. “Apparently you decided to take a sudden nap on the floor of your office.”
She smiled weakly. “Bad decision.”
“Very bad.” He reached over and stroked her cheek. “How do you feel?”
“Odd. Floaty. Disconnected.”
“That would be the sedative kicking in,” he assessed.
“Have I had a heart attack? Has a doctor been in?”
“A few minutes ago,” he said. “But it wasn’t a heart attack. The palpitations were induced by stress and you collapsed from exhaustion. I told him what you’d been doing, and he asked if you had a death wish.”
She laughed softly. “I guess I need a vacation.”
“You’re having one,” he pointed out. “All meals included.”
“This is much too expensive a vacation,” she argued. “I have minimal insurance coverage and it’s brand-new.”
“It’s quite enough, as you’ll find out,” he replied. “I checked.”
“The children…!”
“I picked them up from school, and John from day care and brought them here with me. They’re with your friend, Tammy. I phoned her and she came straight over to pick them up. I would have
been glad to keep them,” he added at once, “but I’m on duty and I can’t get anybody to cover for me. I took my lunch hour early to come and see about you.”
“Thanks, Matt.”
“No problem,” he said gently. “I don’t mind looking after people I lo…people I care about,” he corrected abruptly, afraid that he’d gone too far too fast. She was fragile enough already without having to carry the burden of his feelings for her.
But Mary had caught his slip of the tongue, and even through the fog of the sedatives, she felt exhilarated. “You’re a wonder, Matt. I don’t know how to thank you…”
“I don’t need thanking,” he replied gently. “I’m glad to do it. Thank your friend, Tammy. She didn’t even have to be coaxed into baby-sitting—if that’s the right word to use.”
“Are my babies all right?” she whispered.
They were terrified and half out of their collective minds with worry, he thought, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. He smiled convincingly. “They’re doing great. I’m going to bring them to see you when I get off duty tonight.”
“I’ll try to look better so that I don’t scare them.”
He reached out and took her hand gently in his. Her fingers were like ice. “Listen, you’re going to have to make some hard decisions, and soon. The doctor said you’ll make a speedy recovery—provided that you slow down. If not for your own sake, then for the children’s. What are they going to do without you, Mary?”
She winced. “I’ve tried so hard to give them everything I could. Life is so hard sometimes, Matt.”
“I may not look as if I know that, but I do,” he said, curling her small hand into his big one. “Nevertheless, you’re going to have to slow down.”
“Where do I start?” she worried. “I can’t give up my cleaning jobs, they’re all I have to support me.”
“You have a part-time job at the food bank that will help a lot. That should allow you the luxury of cutting down on your cleaning jobs, at least. And you’ll have more volunteers to help with the pickups and deliveries of your program. Who knows, Mary, it might someday work into a full-time job. All you have to do is hang in there for the time being. But the pace is going to kill you if you don’t put on the brakes.” His eyes lowered to her hand. He brought it gently to his lips and kissed the palm hungrily. “I’ve suddenly got a family of my own,” he added huskily, and without looking at her. “I don’t want to be left alone.”
Her heart skipped wildly. “Matt!” she whispered huskily.
His dark eyes lifted to hers. He searched them slowly, and her face began to grow radiant with faint color.
“I know,” he murmured. “It’s too soon after your divorce for this. You don’t really know me yet, or trust me. But I’m going to be around for a long time, and I can wait until you’re comfortable with me.”
She laughed a little shyly. “I don’t think I’ll ever be that, exactly. You’re…sort of an electrifying personality. You make me feel as if I could do anything.”
“Same here,” he replied, his lips tugging into a tender smile. “So don’t skip out on me, okay? You have to get better. A lot of us can’t go on without you.”
She smiled up at him with her heart in her eyes. She drew the back of his big hand to her cheek and held it there. “I’m not going anywhere. Honest.”
He stood up, bending over her with his heart in his eyes. “I’ll hold you to that,” he whispered, and, bending, he touched his lips tenderly to her forehead.
She sighed with pure bliss.
He lifted his head, dropped his eyes to her mouth, and bent down to give her a real kiss that took her breath away. When the door opened and a young nurse came into the room, she noted how quickly the policeman stood up, and how flushed he and the patient looked.
“Uh-huh,” she murmured dryly. “I can see that I’ll have to keep a closer eye on you two!” she teased.
The tension broke and they both started laughing.
“He’s the one you have to watch,” Mary said with a possessive smile in Matt’s direction. “But not too closely, if you don’t mind,” she added with a wink at the pretty nurse. “I can’t stand the competition.”
“That’s what you think,” Matt drawled.
Mary sat up in bed. “Oh, my goodness,” she exclaimed. “Who’ll do my pickups and deliveries tonight? You can’t do it all, not even with the children helping.”
He held up a hand. “Already taken care of,” he said easily. “I phoned Bev and she phoned a few people. Tonight, even if you could get out of that bed, you’d be superfluous. So you just concentrate on getting your strength back. Okay?”
Mary felt as if she had a new lease on life, as if tomorrow and all the tomorrows to come would be worth waking up for. The look in Matt’s eyes made her tingle like an adolescent with her first crush.
He seemed to understand how she felt, because his eyes darkened and a faint ruddy flush darkened the skin on his high cheekbones.
“I really have to go,” he bit off.
Mary was watching him hungrily while the nurse checked her blood pressure, and then her temperature, with her high-tech arsenal of diagnostic tools.
“You’ll be back tonight, with the kids?” Mary added.
He nodded, and smiled. “Around seven.”
“I’ll expect you,” Mary said huskily. “I’m going to phone Tammy and thank her.”
“Good idea.” He winked again. “Stay out of trouble.”
“Look who’s talking!” Mary exclaimed, and smiled back at him.
“See you.” He went out with a quick wave of his hand. Mary stared after him until the door closed.
“Handsome guy,” the nurse murmured dryly. “I gather he’s spoken for?” she asked.
“Oh, yes, indeed, he is,” Mary replied with a becoming blush.
“No wonder you’re improving so much,” the nurse laughed. “If you need me, just buzz. You’re doing great.”
“Thanks,” she said.
The nurse smiled and went to her next patient down the hall.
Her family doctor, Mack Barker, stopped by just at suppertime to check her over. He dropped into a chair by her bedside after he’d checked her chart and taken her vitals himself.
“I suppose you know now that you can’t go on burning the candle at both ends,” he told her. “You were pushing yourself too hard. Something had to give.”
“I suppose I just went on from day to day without thinking about how much stress I was under,” she had to admit.
“You’re going to have to learn how to delegate more,” he warned her. “Or this may not be the last trip you make to the hospital.”
She drew in a lazy breath. “It’s just that I’ve got three kids to look after, and now I’m doing this food rescue program…”
“Which is a very worthwhile thing,” the doctor admitted. “But if you don’t slow down, somebody else is going to be doing it instead of you. Or maybe nobody else will be able to do it at all, and it will fold. Either way, you’re going to destroy your health if you don’t find a way to curtail your work. I’m sorry. I know how much it means to you. But you can’t possibly keep it up any longer.”
“I can’t give up what I do at the food bank,” she said miserably. “You can’t imagine how many people depend on those food deliveries—”
“Yes, I can imagine,” he interrupted. “It’s a tremendously worthwhile and unselfish thing you’ve been doing.” He smiled quietly. “It’s just that I’d like you to be able to continue it. This is going to require some compromise. But you can salvage some of your charity work and keep your job at the food bank as well. You only need to cut your housekeeping duties in half. Believe me, your clients will understand.”
“It’s the money,” Mary argued. “I have to be able to keep the kids in clothes and food and pay my bills. We’re living in a motel room, we can’t even afford to rent a house!”
“Do you believe in miracles?”
Mary looked up as Be
v stepped into the room with a big smile on her face.
She blinked. “Well, yes. Of course.”
“Your hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. I know someone who has a house for rent, at a price you can afford.”
“You’re kidding!” she exclaimed.
“I’m not. And my friend knows where you can get some good used furniture and appliances to go in it.”
“I can’t believe it,” she exclaimed.
When the doctor left the room a few minutes later, Bev filled her in on the details. “It gets better. The house is half a block from the shelter, so that you could walk to work.”
She just stared at Bev, dumbfounded.
“I know you can afford the utilities on your salary. You could probably even afford to make payments on a good used car, since you won’t have rent to worry about.”
Tears stung her eyes and rolled down her pale cheeks. “I just can’t believe it!”
When Matt returned that evening with the kids, she filled him in on her wonderful news.
He smiled. “It’s amazing how kind people can be,” he remarked. “I see a lot of cruelty in my line of work. Sometimes it really gets me down, seeing the dark side of human nature. But then, somebody like you comes along and renews my faith in mankind. Womankind, too. People who give always get repaid for it, Mary.”
She wiped away the tears. “Bev went out of her way looking for that house, didn’t she?”
He nodded.
“What a kind thing for her to do.”
“I’ll tell her,” he said with a laugh. “For now, you just concentrate on getting better, and out of here.”
She let out a long breath, thinking what an odyssey her life had become. It was a journey, an adventure, an obstacle course. But she’d become strong and self-sufficient and independent because of the hardships and challenges.
“Deep thoughts?” Matt probed.
She looked at him. “I was thinking that it’s not the destination, it’s the journey. I’ve heard that all my life. I never really understood it until I ended up in a shelter with my kids.”
He nodded. “The journey is the thing. Not to mention the exciting and interesting people you meet along the way.” He gave her a devilish wink and brought her hand to his lips.
More Than Words: Stories of Hope Page 8