Moved by the plight of the crippled, the routed and the hungry, the young girl cried out. “Dear God, how can a loving Creator witness their anguish and do nothing?” Suddenly, the clouds parted, the sun appeared and God said, “I did do something… I made you.”
The United Way of Sevier County has now commenced their 2010 fundraising campaign. I could write yet again another story about how important it is to help fund the almost 20 local agencies the United Way annually assists. However, this year I want to recall my very first encounter with the United Way by introducing you a very special woman I met a little over a decade ago.
Betty was born and raised in a small community in Middle Tennessee and was the youngest of her parents four children. As a teenager, she played basketball for her high school team until she graduated in the early 1960’s. Four years later, Betty earned a degree in elementary education. Soon after graduating college, she married and moved to East Tennessee where her new husband attended law school.
The young couple ultimately returned to Middle Tennessee, where promise, parenthood and politics defined their lives. Family and friends embraced them and all of their endeavors. Betty had it all. She was a popular politician’s wife, a loving mother, a respected teacher, coach and community leader. Purpose and pursuit filled her days with constant activity, as there was no such thing as an unimportant day.
October 24, 1982 was in danger of being lost among all the other important days in Betty’s very important life. Instead, in many ways, it would be the last day of her life. The new life that Betty awoke to on October 25th did look like the old one, but that is where the similarities ended. For, while she slept, her immune system malfunctioned and attacked itself and literally overnight, Betty had become profoundly deaf.
Certainly, it did not take long for Betty’s new life to stop looking like her old one. Almost instantly, her 18 year teaching career was over and within a year, so was her marriage. Left behind in a world of silence and welfare, until one day Betty did hear the pistol in her dresser calling her name. Fortunately, her son arrived in time to put an end to that conversation. Betty later confessed, “When I could not hear my son say, ‘I love you Mom,’ I knew I needed to get help.”
Betty then contacted the United Way and they immediately made arrangements to help her learn to communicate. Her determination to be free from government assistance motivated her to return to college. She earned a second degree in guidance counseling in less than a year and posted a 4.0 grade point average in the process. Still it would be another year before someone would give her a real chance to be self supportive.
One day, a United Way representative introduced her to the Oasis Center , a teen outreach organization in Middle Tennessee. Betty began her work as a full time volunteer because the job she actually applied for paid less that what she was receiving from welfare. That aside, her resolve greatly benefited the community in exchange for the financial assistance she received. More important, Betty again had a purpose and before long, she became the paid full time director of Educational Services for the Oasis Center .
The many useful agencies the United Way helps to support understand that real self respect is achieved only through self reliance. Therefore, the excellence of Betty’s story is found in the notion that if you cannot be the singer, be the song.
Henry Piarrot is the general manager of the SpringHill Suites by Marriott Pigeon Forge. Please send all story recommendations to hpiarrot@yahoo.com
