When Third Ward home burns, neighbors come through for couple
Judie and Martin Beller watched in horror as smoke billowed from their Riverside Terrace house on that freezing winter-storm night this month.
Like many of us, they were simply trying to keep warm by using their gas fireplace. That’s where the fire started. They stood on their front lawn as firefighters wrangled the flames and drenched their two-story home with 4 inches of water.
But what happened next was anything but tragic.
Neighbors emerged from their own cold, powerless houses into the freezing outdoors to help the Bellers any way they could. They carried out the couple’s belongings and furniture that could be salvaged and offered them comforting hugs. One neighbor brought over a bag of snacks — tuna salad sandwiches and chocolate-covered pretzels.
Another neighbor, a single mom of three whom they know only in passing, gave the couple a four-night stay at a nearby hotel, asking nothing in return. Martin is an English professor at Texas Southern University.
Judie gets emotional thinking about that night.
“We have the best neighbors. They walked up to us with open arms. It made us feel so valued,” she said.
In the wake of Winter Storm Uri, neighbors became the heroes for so many Houstonians. There also were many collective efforts by local organizations to provide relief.
At Unity National Bank, volunteers handed out nearly 500 plates of barbecue from Ray’s BBQ Shack to Third Ward families impacted by the storm. The Texans and council member Carolyn Evans-Shabazz sponsored food distributions at five locations in Third Ward, Sunnyside and surrounding areas.
Food giveaways popped up everywhere, along with waterdistribution efforts like the one hosted by OST Liquor, a Blackowned business that opened in June.
Houstonians know all too well how to respond in times of disaster. We saw that during Hurricane Harvey and the storms before that. And we’re seeing it now.
We know how to open our doors, our pantries and our hearts to people when Mother Nature or even man-made forces can be so cruel.
When Bishop Frank Rush, pastor of Houston Praise and Worship Center at 3802 Live Oak, discovered a homeless parishioner camped out in his car in the church’s driveway, bracing himself to face the cold, Rush responded in Houston fashion. He gave the man a place to stay.
“Fortunately, we never lost power,” Rush said. “We were able to have him to stay in back of the church with another family. We fed him and gave him blankets. We are extremely thankful to God that we could do that.”
Rush and his wife, JoAnn Vallie Rush, a former Houston TV anchor with a doctorate in divinity, distributed boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables donated by the Common Market, a nonprofit that provides food from sustainable family farms to families and churches.
“Sometimes the help from neighbors is all the help you’ve got,” Vallie Rush said. “There are people who are supposed to be responsible and don’t have the ability or are overwhelmed by the situation to help in the manner in which they should. It’s so important that we help each other. We’re a small church, which gives us a special ability to reach our neighbors and do what neighbors do.”
Judie Beller knows rebuilding her house will take many months. Still, she visits her charred home every day. A stack of soaked genealogy papers and photographic equipment were among her cherished items.
“But it’s only stuff,” she said. She’s most grateful for the kindness of neighbors. “People in Houston are another breed. They are all heart. We haven’t met any stinkers.”
“Sometimes the help from neighbors is all the help you’ve got.”
JoAnn Vallie Rush