Look Out For One Another

 After the other day’s story of Louisville, Kentucky police murdering Breonna Traylor in her home, I found another, far better, story about people in Louisville.

Jake Bland is the operations manager at Hometown Hauling, a refuse collection company in Louisville, and he’s also on the truck picking up his customers trash. One day, during his regular route, he noticed that there was no trash out in front of one house, owned by an elderly woman; in fact, it had been a couple of weeks since she’d put the garbage out.

But rather than move on to the next address, Jake called his dispatcher, Bernice Arthur, and voiced his concerns. Bernice then called the 90-year-old customer and was relieved that she answered the phone. Relief turned quickly to grief when the woman told her she hadn’t put her trash out in a few weeks because she didn’t have any:

"She just didn't have nothing to eat….and that's why she had no trash to put out there."

 The woman depended on public transportation to get to and from her local grocer, and because of a now limited public transportation schedule, and a fear of getting on a crowded bus with strangers—many unmasked—during a pandemic, she wasn’t able to get any food.

For ten days before Jake Bland came along.

Bernice said the woman told her that she had no family to help and Bernice cut her off:

“You have a family now.”

Bernice asked her to make a shopping list and, after his shift, Jake returned to her house and picked up the list, went shopping, and brought everything back to Mrs. W. And his company paid for the food.

Jake offered to help her put everything away, but Mrs. W told him to leave it in the garage to keep everyone safe.

Bernice and Jake have vowed to check on the many elderly and disabled customers that they have, and will continue to check on Mrs. W.

I wonder if all those people marching on state capitals because they want a beer and a haircut, or to get their hair and nails done, have given one thought to people like Mrs. W. Or are they too busy in their own little shallow worlds to think of others.

Luckily for several people, Jake and Bernice didn’t think like that.

DailyKos