Save Ms. Mary's House!

Meet Ms. Mary, a 72-year-old widow who has worked in Mississippi since she was twelve years old, raised five children, and is currently back at school to earn her GED.  She has lived in this house for 28 years, since she and her husband came to Starkville, and is now afraid it may soon become unlivable due to the leaky roof and water damage that has built up over the years.  A local contractor willing to replace the roof, soffit and fascia boards, and help with some of the water damage estimates the repairs will cost $6,000, well beyond what Ms. Mary can afford from her social security.  Her children would love to help, but one is left disabled and out of work from a recent bout with cancer, one is constantly caring for a special-needs child, and her other is looking for work.  The women in her tiny church do not have the means to help her, and her neighbors face similar predicaments.  The world's problems are overwhelming. Mississippi's poverty is HUGE. What can we do in the face of that? Save one home at a time.  Ms. Mary has supported her family since she left school after sixth grade to work as a migrant farmer across the fields of Mississippi.  She has raised not only her three children, but a step daughter and a grandson.  She has worked at the Bob Smith plant before it was shipped overseas, worked store jobs and child-care jobs in many places in Starkville.  She is now a diligent student, coming to her adult education classes every day, ready to work and learn.  Ms. Mary is also smart, perceptive, and tells it like it is, full of stories of Starkville and greater Mississippi before the Civil Rights Movement.  She has kept her house clean, cozy, and free of pests and vermin, and she is clever in her efficient use of utilities.  Despite her own hard work and careful living, Ms. Mary is very much on her own, and these repairs are beyond what she can handle alone.  Please help.  All money raised will go to fixing Ms. Mary’s house. 

“But God grant me the courage not to give up on what I think is right, even though I think it is hopeless.”  --From the Serenity Prayer in Ms. Mary’s kitchen