A thank you for helping homeless family

Editor: I first became aware of a local homeless family after reading about them on Nextdoor. (The family consists of the dad, 14-year-old boy, a 9-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy.)

I hoped I wouldn’t see them because I knew how sad I would be. But, of course, I did. The first time I saw them was near Kohl’s. You couldn’t miss them. By the time I came out of the store they were nowhere in sight. The next day I was driving on Cherokee Lane headed towards Kettleman Lane. There they were again, the whole family walking, the older boy pushing the grocery cart with all their belongings piled 6 feet high.

I continued on to complete my errand. I couldn’t get that scene out of my head and headed back to Cherokee Lane. There they were, the little ones running around and the dad sitting on the bus stop bench. I stopped. The older boy came to the car and I asked 101 questions. I gave them money so that they could spend the night at the nearby motel and drove away in tears, plus I was feeling angry that these children did not have a roof over their head. This just was not right!

Over the next couple of days I received cash donations (plus bags of groceries filled with all kinds of good things) from my friends and family. Someone said that I couldn’t help everyone and they are right, but I said I could help one family.

With their help we were able to give them three nights stay at the motel. Thank you again friends and family. In the meantime, the Lodi PD was getting funds together to buy bus tickets for this family to get them to out-of-state family. Since then, I have learned that there are a lot of people in Lodi that helped the family in many ways during their time in Lodi.

Thank you to all who helped these precious children and thank you to the Lodi PD for all the help you gave to this family. And to the manager at the motel, thank you for your care and kindness. Lodi does care. DARLENE MACDONALD Lodi