The Resort Years - 13

Unexpected Guests

The Rim Fire brought us an amazing sight – a disoriented and slightly singed raptor resting on the parking block in front of the car parked by Unit #1 at noon one day!   I backed off and called Tom on the cell phone and told him to take photos from the bedroom window of “the bird” in front of our car.  We checked the internet later and found that it was a juvenile Golden Eagle!

After fifteen minutes of rest and getting its bearings again - despite the half dozen wasps flying around its neck - the elegant, long-taloned bird flew off to swoop over the river looking for lunch.  Several fishermen witnessed this amazing sight as well while fishing the river. 

Having lived in the area for over 35 years we knew of the Bald Eagle’s nest at Pinecrest Lake, and some Ospreys as well, but until this incident, no Golden Eagles lived in our area.  We assumed that it had been sucked up to 30,000 or 40,000 feet in the very hot pyro-cumulous cloud and dropped out, literally falling to our front steps.  After a trip like that I would be disoriented as well!!

We had a visitor stop by the Post Office last week.  I instantly recognized his voice and called him by name – John Trigg, dishwasher and gas pumper from YEARS AGO across the highway.  He had hitchhiked from Sonora today to check out the “old neighborhood” and talked and talked about his emergency last month when he nearly died and the years he had spent in Oregon taking care of an elderly couple, his poor treatment by the Salvation Army after working for them and signing “all of his earthly belongings?” over to them, about writing books.  I told him that writing books isn’t hard, publishing books isn’t hard it just takes money, SELLING books just didn’t work for me so I am giving them away.  I have dropped a couple of boxes on local Thrift Stores, given several to the County Fair Board to use any way they can…so am officially out of the publishing business.

I blessed John with TWO books just to keep him occupied during the drizzle.  He was so busy talking I wasn’t able to ask him how he ever found ME when he had been “homeless in Sonora” for several weeks and the local cops had told him to “move on!” before they impounded his pickup!  Turns out that had happened once in Merced years ago.  That was just one of the stories he told us before we passed him off to a neighbor who had come for his mail and was going as far as Cold Springs and would give John a ride.

Was this a test of our readiness for the next assignment that GOD has for us?  If so, we flunked…did not make him even a sandwich, did not invite him in, we did listen and thank him for coming by and wish him “GOD speed” to his next adventure.

 

We had a homeless lady here in Strawberry; who insisted that she was not homeless but escaping the stress of Turlock and an abusive step-dad who had moved in with her.  She was living in a tent up the Highway, having biked or hitchhiked from Turlock.  She appears to be a prayer warrior, praying for rain and snow - which we need desperately - as well as the salvation of her lost family members and friends. She rode her bicycle up in January, pulling a trailer she said until Knight’s Ferry where she sold it.  She says that she has liver cancer and after six treatments said, NO MORE PILLS!  Her doctor said that she needed peace and quiet if she was going to stop the meds and see if her body would fight off the cancer on its own.  She says that she knows that she is dying, but wants to plant seeds of the Gospel for as long as she is able.  She was camping out in the neighbor’s garage during this last cold spell, and another neighbor took her to rescue her “camp” up the road before the “prayed for” rain and snow come this week, we hope.

Like most homeless people, she could be playing the “prayer warrior” and “dying person” roles to get the survival tools that she needs, but how do we get her to “move on” since she appears to have overstayed her welcome here in Strawberry?  She is afraid of the dark, afraid of the big men/boys at the Skateboard Park where I told her I would pick her up on Monday evening after the mail delivery person suggested the subsidized apartments down in Sonora.  Tom says she needs to move on, but the money she survives on isn’t available until Monday in Modesto!  I just talked to my neighbor Christine, who has been helping her as well, and found a couple of “discrepancies” in her story – like who is taking her to Modesto on Monday?!  At the Strawberry Inn we put folks like her to work, until we found that they didn’t DO THE WORK, then we fired them.  I guess we could move her out of the linen room and lock the door and she would have to find another place to camp out!  Not easy being the “bad guy” but can’t have her living in the linen room any longer.

We ended up taking her to Modesto to pick up her SSI and to the liquor store, which always cashes her check, even without the ID that was taken from her before she started her trek to the mountains the beginning of January. My neighbor, Christine, convinced the owner of the Sierra Village Trailer Park to give her the RV right across from one of my acquaintances, and I even gave her a ride to cash a subsequent check and pick up some groceries in Twain Harte.  God bless her, I am sure that “her mansion up above” is nearly complete.

Several months and many conversations later, I took Mimi to a “new doctor” who said she would call in a prescription for the pain meds she has been on since head surgery in 1998.  Waited and waited at the pharmacy only to discover that my “no pills” homeless person was addicted to that pain pill.  She fell apart when the pharmacist told her that the doctor had called and cancelled the prescription.  Several days of withdrawal later, she went to the ER and the doctor THERE gave her what she needed “before she killed herself!”  Let’s see – do we have a truth problem or an addiction or both.

She is now back at her “old doctor” in Modesto, thanks to rides from folks at the Lutheran Church where I happen to play piano.  She is also living in the pastor’s RV having lost her two month home at the Sugar Pine RV Park, not quite as many druggies, but she can be a pest – she bothered strangers for rides to the ER, asked for money for milk, asked to use the office phone as her cell was out of minutes, etc.  Oh dear!

The minister’s wife “took her in for the winter” as the small RV was not going to be warm enough for the winter.  When she was remanded to STATE custody (her family has deserted her!) by a Judge, County Social Services found a place where her meds can be monitored and she has trouble “escaping!”  She has to “earn” privileges like a trip to the store, where her “spending” is totally monitored.  At least she isn’t camped by the side of the road and the minister’s wife gave her unconditional love, befriending her and helping her to kick her addictions. 

Epilogue on Mimi the homeless lady – Pastor’s wife finally found someone at Social Services who would give her the minimal news that Mimi had died back in April.  That would explain why there had been no contact in a couple of months of trying, asking about her at “the home” and attempting to discover how she could just disappear while under lock and key.  We pray that she has found the peace and happiness that seemed impossible in this life.  RIP – Gemima de Trinidad – RIP.

Life is what happens while you are making PLANS!