Sometimes when people come to the shelter to take a tour, they indicate to me that I am the one who "does it all." Let me tell you, it is not just me.

I may have slept here at the shelter for the last six to seven years, but right along side of me has been Lois Cross, who came here to volunteer in January 2000.  Back then she planned to volunteer one or two days a week but "fell in love with the people," as she puts it, and about a year or so later she gave up her house and moved right in here at the shelter.  She had retired early from AT&T and had that freedom. The days had become more frequent and longer and soon there was no sense to even going home, so when she saw how much I needed her, she moved in and asked me what side of the floor I wanted.

We actually took turns sleeping next to the copier, and she used to joke about sometimes sleeping on the floor with all the money around her head, meaning the bags of coins from the sale of the Homeless Voice.  But the copier had its own mental health issue because it seemed to shout out loud noises in the middle of the night. 

 Lois Cross … she is everything a person can be. She does every possible thing for me, from making sure I have clean underwear to making sure we pay the bills.  If it is 3 a.m. and there is a code blue, it is Lois at my side helping me work on the person. We are very much in tune with each other.

One afternoon a client went down in a full cardiac arrest.  I tried to get an airway on "Raymond" with an Ambo Bag but couldn’t. I tried and tried. It was the first time this has ever happened to me. I have given CPR at least 10 times here at the shelter.  So I did what we did in the old days: mouth-to-mouth.

In between breaths, I was about to scream for someone to get me peroxide because his fluids were coming back up into my mouth.  As I started to scream, a hand handed me a big bottle of peroxide.  That hand was Lois’ hand. She saw me using no barricade for mouth-to-mouth and knew I would want something to gargle between breaths and went back to the first aid station and got me the bottle I needed.

She for sure is not an assistant director: She is a co-director, and she has no problem directing me as well during her 90-hour week.

 Next we have Mr. Mark Targett, our senior vice president, co-director, technology manager, computer programmer, data manager and, lastly, the guy behind the Homeless Voice media productions.

He does all our Web sites as well as our video production. Mark came up with the system that allows me to be in a few places at one time by giving me a laptop that I can use to video conference with shelter staff or even speak in real time to a client who is at another location and may be depressed. The system allows me to see their faces and talk to them live. It allows me to see if they are hearing voices when I talk to them by their head and eye movements.

When there is a disaster and we are going to bring water to a community, it is Mark who keeps track of our vans and trucks with GPS.  He is able to communicate with the emergency operations center in that local community. This is important because when you travel and don’t know where you are going and it is pitch black because there is no electricity in that community and the EOC needs to change our drop-off point … it is all Mark.   During Katrina he pulled up satellite images and directed us in via our satellite
phone system. 

 I have known Mark since I met him when he was 16; he was a customer of my wireless communication company.  His father, a police officer, had passed away, and we soon had a father/son relationship. Mark has had his share of problems growing up like any normal kid does, and he has succeeded. There was a time that COSAC was there for Mark, and now it is Mark who is here for COSAC.

 He is now married to a beautiful lady named Sara, who works under Mark to put together the paper you read each and every month. Mark and his lovely wife work really hard, each working 70 hours a week helping us.

Working here as many hours as we do, there is really no room for a social life. Sometimes, when things get stressed, I hear these three little soft and beautiful voices coming over my video screen and then in a matter of seconds I see three little heads pop up.  Sometimes Mark knows that I need that therapy and sometimes they just call me on their own.  These are the heads of Mark and Sara’s children, whom I love so much.  After all, they are my little grand kids too, and I love them so much.

So to you, Lois, and to you, Mark and Sara, and to the rest of the gang at the shelter, I want you to know that without you I would have died a long time ago from stress.  I love you all.