A divorced woman called the HELP Line, crying. Her mother was on her deathbed, but she lived in Mankota, MN. She desperately
wanted to go see her, and her mother had been asking for her. She had a car, but she knew it would never stand the several
hundred mile trip. It barely took her back and forth to work in Grand Forks, ND.
We called her mother's doctor in Mankota. (We always do our best to verify the veracity of a person's claim. You hate
to not trust people, but we are the stewards of the funds graciously given by our donors, and we feel the cost of a phone
call is just good insurance.) The doctor assured us that the daughter's mother had, at best, a week left, and that the mother
had been asking over and over again to see her daughter.
A bus ticket was purchased. The daughter left that afternoon. When she returned, a week later, she called to tell us
that she had gotten there in time to spend two days with her mother before she died. She was also able to take care of making
the funeral arrangements and to be there for the services.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
