The little apartment on Southside’s Avenue B was packed with people Thursday afternoon.
In the living room, Columbus Police Chief Selvain McQueen and Columbus Police Department Community Relations Officer Ron Richardson threaded a set of sheer brown curtains onto a metal rod, as Ward 1 Councilman Gene Taylor and Darren Jordan, director of the Greater Columbus Learning Center, chatted in the hallway.
In the bedroom, a lime green bedspread was laid across the bed, and more draperies were hung. Dishes were placed in the cupboard, and a portable fireplace was wheeled into the sitting room. A wooden tchotchke on the kitchen window ledge spelled out the theme for the day: “Home.”
Outside, Columbus Mayor Robert Smith greeted Mary Thomas, 86, as she slowly pushed her walker up the sidewalk.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked.
“My mayor,” Thomas exclaimed, grinning. “And I know something’s up.”
He placed a key in her hand. Home.
Thomas, who is studying for her GED diploma, was finally home, thanks to a community-wide, multi-agency relief effort to rescue her from a house literally crumbling beneath her feet.
She knew about the apartment; but she didn’t know that inside, it had been modestly furnished by the CPD, Community Resource Connection, GCLC, Mississippi United to End Homelessness and furniture from a donation-based emergency furniture bank operated by the city and Lowndes County.
Evangel Church and Apostolic Outreach Church paid the deposits and first month’s rent for the two-bedroom apartment, which is part of the Columbus Housing Authority.
Thomas tentatively stepped into the living room.
“Holy cow! Whoa!” she shouted, as she explored the rooms. “I think I’ll cry later. I’m too happy to cry right now.”
‘Living off love’
As a child, Thomas was shuttled between relatives. Born in New York, she seldom stayed in one place long. Her family called her stupid. They told her she would never make anything of her life. Then they pulled her out of school and sent her to work.
She was grown, living in Florida, when a friend suggested she strike up a pen pal friendship with Johnie Thomas Sr., who lived in Columbus. She shared her painful childhood with him and he made her a promise she says he kept until his dying day — because her life had been filled with so much heartache, and because she had been so mistreated, he promised he would fill the remainder of her years with love.
They married in 1987, and she moved to Columbus to begin what she said were the happiest years of her life.
When he passed away last February, everyone thought she would curl into a ball and refuse to leave the house. Instead, she drew upon the wellspring of affection he left behind.
“I was living off love,” she says.
But an old hurt still remained, and she decided it was time to do something about it. Thomas enrolled in GED diploma classes at the Greater Columbus Learning Center, determined to prove her family wrong and erase their cruel taunts forever. She knew she wasn’t stupid and she didn’t care how long it took to prove it to the world.
Slowly, her reading and writing skills improved, and instructors became attached to the feisty 85-year-old who wouldn’t give up, even when people said her dream of an education was unattainable.
‘Your heart gets involved’
No one realized how deplorable Thomas’ living conditions had become since her husband’s death. In the 1940s, his parents bought the 24th Avenue house in which they lived and Thomas said it’s anyone’s guess as to its age.
Several times, she fell through the rotting floors. Once, she fell in the bathtub and had to call for help. A persistent cough has been bothering her lately, a nagging reminder of the health hazards in the home.
Last week, she made an offhand remark about the house to an employee at the Learning Center. Because the house is in Taylor’s ward, he went to check it out with Columbus Building Inspection Official Kenny Wiegel and Code Enforcement Officer Derrick Nash. They agreed the house wasn’t suitable for human habitation.
They haven’t decided the fate of the house, but for Thomas, the future is certain — she won’t be returning to 24th Avenue. Even her possessions, minus her clothes and a few knicknacks, weren’t deemed salvageable.
Community Resource Connection Project Coordinator Jennifer Garrard met Thomas several years ago, when the agency replaced some of the rotting floors in the home to keep out invading raccoons. But even she was shocked at the decline over the past few years.
She stood in the neat new apartment Thursday and wiped away tears, with more flowing every time Thomas squealed with joy.
“I was afraid for her,” Garrard admitted. “She’s always been so sweet. When you help somebody, your heart gets involved with them. She deserves this so much. I’m just glad she has a safe place to live now.”
Helping people in need is part of the city’s mission, said Glenda Buckhalter, public information officer for CPD.
“Now we’re looking for the next person we can do this for,” Buckhalter said. “We’re working to make sure people get what they need.”
Alicia Prude, the GED examiner for the GCLC, planned for Thomas to stay with her until telephone service and cable television can be connected at the apartment. But sitting in a blue corduroy recliner Thursday, Thomas didn’t look concerned about having to do without a few luxuries. She was ready to spend the night in her own home — her new home.
“That house, it was nothing but a shell,” Thomas said of her former house. “It was getting ready to fall in on me.”
She looked around the living room, which was barely large enough for the tiny loveseat, recliner, footstool and television stand.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said to her benefactors. “I had no idea I was so loved.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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