"What did you do to the folks at work to get sent here tonight?"

That was the question that greeted me from a smiling volunteer as I walked into the First Baptist Church shelter in downtown Madisonville on Friday evening. Volunteers were busy unfolding cots, taking turns handing out name tags and completing numerous other tasks to convert the church family center into what would become a home to dozens of people seeking shelter in the storm.

Pastor Troy Brooks led me through the line and chuckled while he told me of his dashed aspirations of being a news reporter, a career change that worked out well for both his congregants and the almost 100 guests who found refuge at the shelter. He stopped often to speak with them, joking with their children along the way.

Pastor Brooks is good at what he does.

I set up my cot next to Jack and Beulah Youngblood. Married for 55 years, Jack and Beulah have called Madisonville home for the last 20 years. They decided to wait out the storm away from their mobile home. Beulah told me how she and Jack used to live equal and opposite directions from Normangee before they were married -- they'd meet up in the middle.

I can only assume that "meeting in the middle" is one of the reasons their marriage has lasted as long as it has.

They had us turn out the lights around 11 p.m., but I still could see many faces illuminated by the lights from cell phones.

I dozed off while listening to Beulah and Jack talk softly to each other late into the night.

Most of the shelter's guests were Madisonville residents. But others had fled coastal cities, including Hitchcock in Galveston County. That's where Jason and Jessica Watson and their 1-year-old daughter, Cheyenne, are from. They told me they were fairly certain they'd lost everything but were determined to return to the Texas coast.

My 16-hour stay at the shelter was full of conversations like these.

I met a minister who told me of his days in the military and offered a prayer for me as I left on my way back to Bryan. I laughed with the shelter volunteers who kept both the coffee and the conversation flowing.

I salute this group of volunteers who ran out into the rain every time the generator went out (we lost electricity at about 6:15 a.m.). They treated me kindly, just as they did the other guests.

I think of these folks tonight and am truly grateful for the time I spent with them. Most of us returned Saturday to the safety and comfort of our homes.

Now I can't help but think of the Watson family and their contingent from Hitchcock. I can't help but know their lives are anything but certain. Tonight, I find myself hoping that life shelters them from the coming storms.

Stuart Villanueva is an Eagle staff photographer. His e-mail address is stuart.

villanueva@theeagle.com.

Comments

(Requires free registration.)

1 comment(s) found!

Posted by: mvilla5515 On: 9/17/2008

Comment Title: Nice Article
Such an empathetic, well written article. Thanks!

---