The challenge in composing this quarterly letter is deciding what NOT to tell you, rather than finding something to write about. In my 22 years as Executive Director of the Council, I have never known a time when we were busier, more productive, or more engaged with HCH issues around the country. Happily, the newsletter in which this appears and our newly redesigned website represent the scope of our work quite nicely - I hope you will look there for news of our undertakings and for resources to assist you in your work.

 

That said, I am free to be a bit more personal in this Letter. I lost my 94-year-old mother last month after her long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Mom tenaciously clung to life with every scrap of energy at her disposal, dying only when she had no energy to keep her strong, kind heart beating. She steadily slipped away from us over several years, leaving us the memory of her unconditional love for her children and a firm grounding in the values she taught us.

 

"Love one another" sums up what Mom was about, and the imperative underlies much of what I have tried to do with my dear colleagues in the Council. Together, we have built an organization that seeks to respect and defend every person's worth. We work to overcome human suffering, to assure that fragile bodies are sheltered and healed, and that troubled minds are calmed. Our vision is perhaps broader than Mom's ambitions - which reached her family, her church, and her nearby neighbors - but the imperative is the same. Where my mother responded with charity, I might strive for justice, but both approaches are just ways to express love.

 

I am most fortunate to be part of a large community of kind, well-motivated people who have found spiritual succor, intellectual stimulation, and professional growth in Health Care for the Homeless. To the Council staff and volunteer leaders who have so graciously supported me in this time of loss, thank you. I look forward to more years of work together, confident that we are saving lives, comforting the afflicted, and changing the world.