Attie 2

A DIFFERENT KIND OF HERO

Photo: Kathie with baby: Kathie with baby Marley Elizabeth Zorn.

We often think of heroes as those who perform spectacular fetes: leaders who have changed the destiny of their countries, athletes who break world records, defenders of the law who protect and save citizens. This month, Making Matters Better is featuring someone whose acts of kindness make a difference every day to the people who know her. Recently, she helped make matters better for many people she didn’t know and will probably never see again. Then, she was invited to speak about this experience at the annual Red Cross dinner in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. First, a brief background on Kathie Frome.

Kathie is a Certified Professional Midwife who practices in Western Massachusetts. She has dedicated her work of the past twenty-seven years to restoring beauty, continuity and harmony with Nature to the birth process. As a licensed Social Worker, she also works with people with developmental disabilities. Kathie is on the Board of Directors of Center for Peace Through Culture, the organization featured in last month’s Making Matters Better. Here’s Kathie, in her own words, describing her experiences and her feelings about working with Hurricane Katrina victims at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas.

MY EXPERIENCE AS A HEALTH CARE WORKER IN THE AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE KATRINA

Photo: Kathie with baby Luna Thomes, mother Sarah and father Sean.

In the week following the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina and the timely birth of the first September-due baby, for whom I was midwife, my sketchy plans for a little vacation were transformed into a get-away of a different sort - a journey into the world of human-life devastation and volunteer disaster relief work. I had a little window of time to offer, and within 24 hours of my call to the Red Cross I was on a plane to Houston, bracing myself for the next two weeks in the middle of the unimaginable. My experience as a mental health worker at the Astrodome, Reliant Center, and Arena in Houston during those two weeks following Katrina was densely textured with a full array of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual challenges. It was an experience of complete exhaustion from extensive walking and difficult working hours; huge frustration with organizational deficits and communication gaps; and concern about the myriad unmet needs of victims - especially the elderly, physically ill, cognitively challenged, physically disabled, emotionally unstable and mentally ill, single and pregnant mothers, and the people who were alone or who had lost family members during the disaster.

It was an experience of constant sensory assault from the environmental conditions of the shelter - from the bright lights day and night, from the loud speaker and din of thousands of voices echoing across the vast hall, from the smells of humanity - sick, stressed and soiled, from the visual chaos of people in motion, children running, rubber balls bouncing, cots piled high with blankets and newly acquired belongings, and trash strewn around overflowing containers; and from the emotional climate of collective distress, loss, frustration, anxiety, tension, uncertainty, despair and destitution. It was an experience of dramatic and disturbing contrasts revealed in shuffling back and forth from the grim realities of shelter existence, with the imminent and complete uncertainty of every person housed within, to the personal, off-duty luxury of a soft bed, clean linens, warm bath, and the secure knowledge that all was well in the life and home I would return to soon where beauty, fresh air, blessed quiet, and order preva It was also an experience of the deep satisfaction that comes with being present for another human being, in the moment, with every available faculty of compassion, understanding, wisdom and resourcefulness being drawn upon and freely given. It was an experience of extraordinary and immediate camaraderie with fellow volunteers.

It was an experience of listening to stories of unspeakable events that desperately needed to be told, holding hands and stroking shoulders, rocking babies to sleep, delivering an extra blanket here and there, cooling an argument, calming agitation, and sometimes managing to successfully obtain appropriate medical, mental health, or social services for a family or individual from the thinly stretched resources of Houston/Harris County. Above all, it was an experience of deep gratitude for every thing in life of true and lasting beauty and worth, and it was an experience of knowing how very little I, as one person, could do in the immensity of need, but also knowing that IT IS THE SUM OF THE WORK THAT COUNTLESS THOUSANDS DO THAT WILL EVENTUALLY MAKE THE DIFFERENCE. And, it was a crash course in Chaos 101. Much was learned in that course. I learned that the core characteristic and very nature of Disaster is Chaos, and the magnitude of the disaster, in large part, defines the magnitude of the chaos. I learned that our job as disaster relief workers is to collectively and individually work, to the best of our abilities, to bit-by-bit and day-by-day help create a new order out of the prevailing chaos. I learned that as disaster relief workers we voluntarily place ourselves squarely in the middle of that chaos, and we need to be well prepared to maintain personal balance and physical health within that so that we do not also become victims of chaos. Most of all I learned about THE RESILIENCE AND BEAUTY OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT that rises up through and beyond the temporary state of chaos and pain, like the lotus from the mud, to somehow meet the demands of the next day, to still smile and laugh, to touch and be touched by another human being, to be grateful for the little blessings of kindness and generosity, and to strive for a better life in a better world.

Stories abound. I am still visited daily by memories of the countless, traumatized, and benumbed people whose cots I sat upon for a few minutes, who graciously accepted the most meager offers of help, who somehow managed to maintain a level of dignity within the most demeaning of circumstances, who unhesitatingly recounted their most shattering experiences, who revealed in a flash the depth of their faith and inmost, personal integrity and beauty, and who’s lives go on, somewhere, now unknown to me. It seems that integrating an experience like this must include an effort to use the experience further to the benefit of others in the future. I’m still working on this. The questions that come to mind at this point are these: How would I, my family and close friends, and our own community cope in the face of similar circumstances? What are our resources? What is our preparedness? What is our capacity to self-organize? What is our capacity to gracefully let go of all that is in excess of necessity? What is our capacity to help each other survive and go on with life when all else seems lost? Paulette asked me for some after thoughts or a post script to this piece. After resisting and saying that I have nothing else to say, I came up with this: We can never know the full effect of any of our actions, but we do know that even the smallest stone tossed into the water creates ripples that radiate outward beyond our field of vision. Certainly this law of nature applies also to our human actions, and, if we are ever tempted to feel overwhelmed into inaction by the enormous challenges we face on this planet at this point in time, we can trust that even the smallest effort will have effects beyond what we can see. Not only are these effects manifested in the external world; they also ripple across our personal consciousness and events of our lives in often surprising ways. There seems to be an almost universal feeling amongst people who have done volunteer service work that they have received far more than they could possibly have given. I certainly know that this has been true for me. By Kathie Frome

Thank you, Kathie, for your post script, and for the beautiful recounting of your story!

COMING IN JANUARY: The dilemma for a writer who focuses on people, organizations, books, and events that improve the lives of others is that this information is thought of as incidental, even irrelevant, and gets buried in the back pages. It is to the credit of the far sighted Publisher of World Jewish News Agency that Making Matters Better has its own listing under NEWS. It takes a tremendous amount of hard work, politics, and business knowledge to effect a positive change. You’ll see how very true this is when you read about the high powered business magnates who are highlighted in next month’s Making Matters Better.

FOR LAUGHS AND FOR SERIOUS