A Servant's Story

By Clay Lester

Carol is reluctant to tell her story.

Having heard her story on various occasions from multiple Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) staff, I know it is powerful and inspiring--the kind of story that begs to be told and told again. Perhaps she is hesitant to recount the events that led to her current role as a volunteer in CAP’s Family Advocacy program because her’s isn’t the kind of grandiose tale that traditionally elicits broad attention. This is true; Carol’s story is a small story, intimate and personal. It is as much a story of simple, unassuming friendship as it is an account of remarkable compassion and humanity. As Carol contemplates the significance of her journey and the choices she has made along the way, her best friend, Brenda, offers reprieve to the silence with her own retelling of Carol’s history with CAP.

“I started at CAP August 29, 1994. I met Carol a year later,” says Brenda, who manages the Family Advocacy program in the Sandy Valley Region. She continues, “Our respite care started at Carol’s home in 1993, and before that time she never left her house. Even after the respite care started, she didn’t want to stay out of the house the full six hours. That was because the most precious thing in Carol’s life was at home—her son Michael.”

Michael, who is paralyzed, requires around-the-clock attention. Now 54, he was injured in a car accident shortly after his 19th birthday, at which point Carol made a promise to God that her life would be dedicated to supporting and providing care for Michael if he survived. With no family in the area, Carol was left to tend to her son alone. In the life of a full-time caregiver, even a quick trip to the store for groceries becomes a nerve-racking odyssey requiring much planning and preparation. Carol needed help.

Somewhat serendipitously, Carol’s mother in Ohio made her aware of Christian Appalachian Project, an organization to which she had donated and whose respite services seemed like a Godsend. In spite of the services they were providing throughout her community, Carol was unfamiliar with CAP until she contacted them in the hopes that they may be able to offer some assistance.

“They just came in and relieved me,” Carol remembers. “I could go get groceries or medicine and make doctors appointments or trips to the bank. It was just my only way out.”

It was during this period of respite care that Carol met Brenda Crum, a relatively new CAP employee assigned to sit with Michael. Brenda soon became the primary respite

caregiver for Carol, providing comfort and support to her and her son for almost 6 years. Eventually Carol was able to secure the aid of brain injury specialists to care for Michael five days a week, which allowed her the opportunity to return the favor to Brenda (and CAP).

“After I was diagnosed with cancer and spent a year in treatment, I realized that I was just weak. I knew that if I just stayed in that house I was only going to get worse,” Carol admits. “And I thought that after all CAP had done for me, it was time to pay it forward.” With specialists now available to care for Michael, Carol decided to start volunteering alongside Brenda in CAP’s Family Advocacy program. It should be noted that the service provided by the brain injury specialists is not without its own cost, which Carol pays every month.

Each morning, after the specialist arrives at her home, Carol goes straight to the Family Advocacy office to work with Brenda, often until four or five o’clock in the afternoon. Brenda encourages Carol to use some of her time for personal pleasures, such as reading, but Carol is quick to respond, “I didn’t come here to read, I came here to work.” And there is plenty of work to be done.

Brenda and Carol spend much of their time unloading and organizing donated goods, which often arrive in a tractor trailer. Their warehouse is immaculately kept--walls of clothing give way to walls of dishes, followed by walls of bedding, appliances, toys, and the like. They take great care with these household items, because they know that as soon as they are stacked on shelves a family suffering from a burnout, or some equally devastating situation, will likely need them. One doubts whether an army of laborers could equal the precision, passion, or work ethic of these two women. “Before I started volunteering here, Brenda was alone. There’s no way she could do all this on her own… and she’s a workaholic, just like me,” chuckles Carol.

When a trailer of Christmas gifts arrived last year, Carol and Brenda went to work. “It was hard, but we did it. That truck was probably 90 percent full, with boxes from floor to ceiling. We took our little roller carts, boxes stacked as high as we could get them, and Carol would push the cart while I stood in the truck and passed the boxes out to her,” explains Brenda.

“And how many families did we serve?” asks Carol proudly. “It was over 700 families that we helped with that load.”

Still surprised that anyone would ever want to hear her story, much less that anyone would find her actions

extraordinary, Carol quietly allows Brenda to speak on her behalf. “She pays someone to go to her home and care for her son just so she can come here to volunteer. I’ve never met anyone like her, and I doubt I ever will. She loves to work. We just love each other, and we love CAP, and we love to help people.”

The story of Carol is perhaps best told by others, after all. What began as a tale of a mother’s love for her son eventually became part of Brenda’s story, which soon became a part of CAP’s story, and is now a story intertwined with the stories of thousands of families and individuals whose lives have been affected by Carol.

“I just want to help, I don’t know what to tell you,” Carol explains. “I want to help Brenda, help people—just give back. I do what needs to be done. I don’t feel I’m doing anything that someone else wouldn’t do if they had the chance or opportunity.”

This is precisely why Carol’s story needs to be told.