Graystone Presbyterian Church

Words to describe today don’t come easily. How do you describe a funeral for a home? A funeral no less emotionally charged than one for a person.

It’s been an emotional week for the staff at EDOLA, our guides said as they tried to prepare us. Most of the people EDOLA helps are found through word of mouth. Only recently did they meet Earnest Hammond. Thankfully they did.

The New York Times covered part of his story earlier this month. (You can read that article see a few select photos here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/us/08trailer.html)

Mr. Hammond’s story is raw and gut-wrenching, and it can’t help but challenge you and tear your heart.

That article will tell you about how FEMA is taking this man’s trailer. It will quite possibly enrage you and make you wonder if there is any justice in the recovery effort. But that article does not tell the full story about Mr. Hammond. It does not tell you about his strength – how he earned the money to buy his rental units, how he cut a hole in his roof to escape when his apartment filled with five feet of water, how he has a system of collecting and smashing cans to make money needed to survive, how he tends his beautiful garden in his backyard full of watermelons, tomatoes, and peppers. The article especially does not touch on the strength required of him to gut as much of the apartments as he could and then welcome our bedraggled group into his front yard with open arms and declare, “What a blessing.”

That article can’t possibly tell you about is what it’s like to hold a garbage bag with him and help him tear down a bathroom he worked so hard to maintain. Or, to dig through his tenants’ hamper and peel their work uniforms from their floor. Or, throw away their wrapping paper while envisioning the Christmases the people celebrated in the space.

And so today, some of us held a southern funeral (complete with jazz) for one man’s dreams and memories. We helped him pour them out of an old, rusty hot water heater and into a garden of ripening tomatoes for his community in the 7^th Ward.

For those of us who read the Times article before we came, we learned the power of being able to insert ourselves into a story that we only knew second-hand.

Those of us who are working on another project know that all the work we’re doing is important and necessary.

It is truly an honor to be here. But we’re relying on God to give us physical strength, wisdom, and compassion.