I Believe in Turkey Terry!

Thanksgiving, the time of year I haul out twenty pound boxes filled with waaaay too much food for a senior citizen. Only this year I had far more people asking me about turkeys than I did last year, and certainly more people wanting turkeys than I had access too. Oh no.

So I called the Red Cross. I got turkeys from them last year. Nope, no luck. Donations are down. They don't have enough for people on their list, let alone people on my list. Fine. Philadelphia Food Pantry? No. Philabundence? I saw their add in the paper asking for donations, so they must be looking for places to give all that donated food to, right? No, not interested. They don't have any turkeys to donate to my organization. Jerks. I call some of the food pantries in local churchs. No turkeys, no turkeys, no turkeys. Damn it!

The guy who normally donates turkeys and all the fixings to us is Turkey Terry (not his real name. Well, Terry is. Not the Turkey part.) He collects money from the local hospital and calls us to ask how many turkeys we need (usually 10-12) and then he shows up with enough food to a feed an army. It's wonderful!

Only this year, no call from Turkey Terry. Others in the office were afraid, but I had faith. Yep, had faith last Friday after being shot down by all the food pantries in the city. Had faith on Monday, even though he was cutting close. Real close. Turkeys have to go out on Tuesday, we're close for half the day on Wednesday. Yep, plenty of faith right until 4.30 Monday afternoon.

This morning my faith was empty, the gauge sitting on zero. Three people were on my turkey list and I couldn't find a single turkey to split among 'em. I was only counting on one turkey from T.T. So at 10 a.m. I made the bad news calls, no turkeys, no donations, no one in the city had turkeys. Everyone was very kind about it, said I worked hard for them and I was sweet to call and let them know, but I felt like crap. No turkeys?! What has the world come to? Holidays are the one time of year people actually behave like decent, compassionate human beings and GIVE, making my job a joy rather than the constant uphill battle.

And then I got a call. One of my favorite clients died. I know, I'm not suppose to have favorites, but I liked her. She had no legs, was partially blind, which was good because she couldn't really tell she was going bald, and a pacemaker. She had problems but she had spunk, real fire. The first time I visited, she yelled at me for half an hour about how social works never did her a lick of good and why would I be any different and I promise all this help with my magical "program" and she was probably the meanest old woman I ever met.

"No," I said. "I like you. You're spunky." She laughed and melted right in the palm of my hand.

The day after the election, it was on her behalf that I yelled at an HMO all morning to get her ambulance service so she could visit her cardiologist, what for the pacemaker and all. Finally, just last week, I won. Got an approval code and everything.

I'm going to miss her. But I worked hard to make the end of her life better and that matters for a lot. And I totally kickedthe HMO's money-tight ass. :)

Jule's client walked in and thought he was having a stroke. She took him to the hospital. (Don't know how he's doing yet.)

So, yeah, my day was going pretty crappy.

At noon, who roles up but Turkey Terry. Halalujah! I had faith in T.T. Never doubted the man for a minute. Okay, 4 hours, but not a minute more than that.

I burned up the phone lines calling people to deliver their turkey. Delivered on Jule's behalf, too, because she was at the hospital. And I broke my back hauling turkeys to people who can't carry one from the store to their door or don't have the money and have no one else who thinks of them on a holiday. And people invited me in, sat me down for tea and cookies and showed me photos of grandbabies and I really like my job. I do. Even sucky days can be turned around. I believe in the magic of Turkey Terry.

Oh, 36,758, by the way. No writing tonight, making the dough for rolls. Want to get a head start, just in case I kill the yeast like I did last year. I am so tired, just as a random aside.