Meet My Nanny

This is Miss Viola "Nanny Precious" Smith. We sent to Port Arthur to help rebuild her home and she ended up rebuilding our hearts. Her modest, 2BDR 1BA home was shaken off its foundation, nearly 2/3 of her roof blown off, and she was left with no hot water, no kitchen or other livable space for nearly 18 months after Hurricane Rita (the biggest of the three sisters storms of 2005 - Wilma, Katrina, and Rita). She is nearly 90 years old and still smiling. And to hear her story, no storm can shake house that is built by love.

Our job was simple. Jack this house up, re-frame two exterior walls, move those walls back on to the foundation joists and stringer, re-seal those walls, re-side three remaining areas of the extreior, build a housing for the hot water heater in time for the plumers to install the heater, re-frame the kitchen floor and mount the sub-floor, and apply and finish dry wall in two rooms. Six people worked on these tasks, a couple of days into the dinner hour, and to the final minute on Friday. But all of these jobs were done and done well. Plus a few extra screens got replaced and her shutters refinished and painted just for good measure. Soon Nanny Precious will no longer have to be moving aournd her own furniture and appliances (yes, this lady has been doing this to survive for some time now.

Of all that work, though, this and a pantry door were probably our greatest accomplishment. We've all had to replace a roof, and we've prbably experienced some termite damage. We have all replaced siding and window screens. These are maintenance jobs. But what really brought the devastation Nanny Precious and others ahve lived through, was the fact that she had not taken a warm shower from October 2005 when she returned to her home until Tuesday, July 17, 2007. And she was elated to have her floor back in her kitchen and a new pantry door installed. Its the little things that Nanny Precious simles about and appreciates. She knows how to move furniture and refrigerators at age 90. She can do that with ease because she has been handed stones when asking for bread in her search to rebuild her home. She has been the victim of sysetmatic racism as she and her husband were the first of many black households in what was thought to be a new and wonderful addition to Port Arthur. But she and her husband continued on and built that house with love, adding a garage they built themselves and a shed in the backyard.

What they built iwht love, we pray and hope that we rebuilt the same way. Thank you Nanny Precious for showing us how to seek the little things that matter most.

Peace