A Few Days Ago a Christian Organization Threw Out Their Values Along with a 93-year-old Woman
Giving Us Another Example of How We Have Become a Nation of Scrooges
Last night I read a headline about 93-year-old Juanita Fitzgerald being handcuffed and taken from a nursing home in Florida two days ago. Her crime? Allegedly not paying “rent” for two months. For which, she was forcefully evicted from her home after administrators called the police.
Let that sink in.
A nursing home called the police to arrest a 93-year-old woman. They did not call social services or other agencies in the area that might have been equipped to help place Juanita in another home. They called the police. The police who answered the call did not show any compassion and reach out to agencies or churches in the area for assistance, rather they handcuffed a frightened and extremely frail 93-year-old woman, put her in a police car and took her to jail and kept her in manacles.
This story and the collective lack of humanity and compassion it reeked of kept me tossing and turning all night. But what pushed me out of bed at 4:35 this morning was the name of the nursing home. I finally got up before dawn to re-read the article and see if I got the name of the home correct. Did I really read that Juanita was evicted from National Church Residences’ Franklin House? After a bit of time on Google, I found out that National Church Residences is an organization with 501c (3) status. It is a charitable organization and was founded by the Rev. John R. Glenn and four Ohio Presbyterian churches in 1961, “out of a Christian commitment to serve older adults’ housing, social and human needs.” A Christian organization with “a Christian commitment to server older adults housing needs” threw a 93-year-old woman out of one of the facilities. An organization that claims on its website to provide “permanent supportive housing communities that serve the formerly homeless and disabled” had a woman arrested because she couldn’t pay rent to a charity.
Let that sink in.
Tossing and turning last night two thoughts kept me from sleep. Where were the Christians in this scenario? Where were the people who claimed to follow Jesus, but instead chose to listen to the edict of a hard-hearted administrator? Are there any Christians working at National Church Residences? Are there any Christians among those working on the police force in Eustis, Florida? If not Christians, where were the people with compassion for another? Where were those who looked into the eyes of a frightened and distraught 93-year-old woman and didn’t see a debtor, or a burden, or a wastrel but a human being? Where was basic human decency?
This story kept me up last night because it reminded me of another Christmas, another church, and another 93-year-old woman. Nina was a member of my church. She had a stroke that left her hospitalized and 16-year-old grandson Adam, at home alone at Christmas. Nina adopted Adam when he was a baby, and she was in her late eighties. I heard about Nina and her grandson when a group of us were decorating the church for Christmas. I overheard the pastor and a prominent member of the church discussing the young man’s situation.
“Do you think Adam has everything he needs?” the board member asked the pastor.
“I checked on him. He seems fine.” The pastor quickly responded.
“Well, I guess it will be okay for him to stay in the apartment. But . . .” listening, I could feel the board member hesitating. He didn’t want to overstep the pastor, but I could tell he knew something about the situation didn’t feel right.
“When I was his age,” the pastor laughed fondly remembering an episode from his youth, “my parents went away for two weeks and left me on my own. I had the time of my life.”
The board member chuckled nervously and left with a “Keep me posted and let me know if there is anything I can do.”
I was fairly new to the church. I didn’t know Nina and Adam well, or the dynamics of the people involved. I trusted the pastor and the board member to do the right thing. I didn’t want to get involved. I justified staying silent with a litany of excuses: I had a lot going on in my own life. Jumping into this situation, when other people seemed to be in the know, might be considered meddling. I tried to assuage my guilt by telling myself, “Surely the pastor and the board member will do the right thing.”
I went home that night and I tried to put the situation out of my mind, but I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned thinking about a 16-year-old boy at home alone, not because his parents were off on a lark, but because his grandmother, his only living relative, the woman who had raised him was in the hospital, dying. I wondered what he must have been thinking. I knew he had to be scared and he had to feel abandoned by everyone and most of all by his “church family,” and the pastor who had so quickly and casually ignored his plight. I wondered how a church that seemed so loving outwardly, that was so eager to celebrate Christmas by trimming trees and decorating the Fellowship Hall could have put the true meaning of Christmas so far from their hearts, that they would have allowed this young man to spend Christmas alone.
The next day, I asked for a meeting with the pastor and the board member. The pastor promised to meet us right after service, but quickly disappeared into the ether of “other meetings and duties he needed to attend to.” The board member approached me outside the church. I explained that I’d overheard the conversation he’d had the day before with the pastor and that I hadn’t slept all night.
“Neither did I,” he confessed. “I knew standing there that leaving Adam at home, on his own, at Christmas wasn’t the right thing to do. I knew that Pastor didn’t want to get involved any more than he already had. To be honest, I was so disappointed in his reaction that I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I made up my mind this morning that I wasn’t going to let the situation slide. My wife and I discussed it, and we are going to invite Adam to come and stay with us over Christmas. Once we see what happens with Nina, we will figure it out from there.”
Nina never returned home from the hospital. Adam stayed with the board member and his family until he graduated from high school a year later. Other members of the church stepped in and helped Adam apply to colleges, find financial aid, fix the car his grandmother left him, sort through her things and close up the apartment where they lived. My husband and I drove Mark to college and bought the things he needed for his dorm room. We took him to church the Sunday before classes started and asked a member of the church in his new town to look out for him. The church readily took him under his wing. They were there for him in ways we couldn’t be.
That is what Christians are supposed to do. That is what decent human beings should do. That is what compassionate, loving people do. We are supposed to listen to that voice inside us that says, “this person needs help, what can I do?” Or that warns, “this isn’t right, you need to step in.” Those voices are a gift. They urge us on so that 93-year-old women do not get thrown out of their homes. So, children don’t have to go through loss alone. If we seize them, the opportunities to care for others allows us to grow into better people, better communities, and better societies.
I am proud of what members of our church did for Adam and the way they ultimately stepped up, despite resistance from the pastor. Personally, I could not have lived with myself if I hadn’t. And, I would have faced many, many more sleepless nights.
Frankly, I hope those who stood by as police handcuffed Juanita Fitzgerald and carried her out of that nursing home have a few sleepless nights. I hope the officer who cuffed her sees the face of his mother in his sleep, but I hope she never has to suffer such indignities. I hope members of the staff at National Church Residences in Eustis, Florida have at least a few sleepless nights. I hope whoever decided to have her arrested, rather than offer her hope and compassion is haunted by the face of Juanita on the floor of the home, asking “Why you are doing this?” over and over. I hope that imagine, pushes them out of bed and down on their knees to ask for forgiveness. I hope Juanita’s imagine stays with them, and the next time they are faced with such a decision, they do the right thing.
I hope that the authorities in Eustis, Lake County, and the state of Florida will investigate if ousting someone from a charity nursing home for not paying “rent” is even legal. I hope they will look into why the administrators or the police did not consider other options before arresting a 93-year-old woman. And I hope the police department will investigate the way the situation was handled and ask if its procedures need to be updated and amended.
In 1843, Charles Dickens wrote a classic story called, “A Christmas Carol.” The story calls to account a society that has become so merciless toward the poor and the infirmed that it no longer sees them or values them as human beings. The main character in the story, Scrooge, represents the potential callousness in all of us when he asks
“Are there no prisons?”
“Plenty of prisons…”
“And the Union workhouses,” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“Both very busy, sir…”
“Those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there, and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
Perhaps, that is what those running the National Church Residence in Eustis thought. Perhaps, they too felt that Juanita should “decrease the surplus population” and make room for some who could pay for a bed. Perhaps, all involved were only doing “their job.” But perhaps, we should start doing better as Christians, as fellow human beings, for one another. All year long, but especially at Christmas, the time of year when we should feel the closest to God’s hope for the world. Rather, than exhibiting the worst of humanity.
Dickens’ story ends on a note of hope. After seeing his life reflected through the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, Scrooge vows to be better. To give more, to be concerned about the plight of others, to love his fellow human beings. After members of our church became aware of what was needed, we stepped up filling in the gaps for Adam as best we could, assuring Nina we would take care of him so she could go in peace. It isn’t too late for National Church Residences and those who run the organization. We all have a choice in life and in every situation we encounter. As Christians, we can choose to follow Jesus. As a nation, we can evolve like Scrooge. Or we can allow callousness and greed to rule our hearts and forge a chain we carry long after this life is over.
It is my hope by reading about Juanita’s story we might ask ourselves when confronted with these situations:
Is there a better way to handle this? What does she need? How can I help?
