Chapter 088 – Alder House
Chapter 88 - Chapter 088 – Alder House
We did not become a shelter overnight.
I was seventy-one by then and realistic enough to know good intentions can break hips if poorly managed.
With Mr. Lawson, Naomi from adult services, Sheriff Reeves, Calvin from the bus station, and a small local board, I created the Alder House Fund.
Not residential at first.
Emergency legal consultations.
Taxi vouchers.
Lock changes.
Temporary phones.
Bus station response cards.
Help for older adults being pressured out of homes they still owned.
The first rule was mine:
No one is removed from a home without hearing their own voice in the plan.
The second was Naomi’s:
Family is not proof of safety.
The third came from Calvin, who had seen too many people left under fluorescent lights:
Nobody waits alone if we can help it.
I funded the beginning with restitution money and a small monthly amount from my pension.
Martin would have called that wasteful.
May you like
That made me more certain.
Money taken from fear should return as protection.
