The Long and Winding Road

Do you know what it like to work on something for years, hoping that it will happen, but it never seems to?

Still you keep at it only to encounter frustration after frustration, road block after road block, villains who turned into hero’s and hero’s who turned into villains, and…well you get my point. It becomes the long and winding road.

The end of this particular road happens today with the grand opening of Union Mission’s Dutch Town campus. It is our masterpiece! A 48-unit apartment complex for homeless people with disabilities began moving in right before Christmas.

It is beautiful, is also home to a health clinic, behavioral health services, oral health care, case managers, and other staff to help people who have never been able to do so, maintain their housing.

To hell with homeless shelters, this is the way that it should be. Dorothy was right! There is no place like home.

Earlier this week I was standing there talking to Keller Deal and Letitia Robinson, planning today’s grand opening, standing in the community center which has walls of windows that let in natural light, looking out over the lush manicured lawn. A city bus pulled into the curbed area that had been cut for it. The doors open and we watched a mother and her two small children climb down the streets onto the white sidewalk.

“Oh, they’re residents,” Letitia exclaimed.

They made their way into the community center where we were standing. Mom had her daughters sit on the new leather sofa while she took care of business.

We resumed our conversation and in the next few minutes I was walking in solitude towards my car. Climbing in, I absentmindedly decided to take one last drive through the entire complex before we turned it over to those who will live here. It had been mine for these past four years. Now it was time for it to become what it was always intended to be. Home!

So as I made my way towards the last quad of apartments, there was mom, unlocking the door to her brand new apartment, and leading her children in by holding there hands. One started jumping up and down before hurling herself over the door. I stopped the car and smiled as I observed the scene.

And the long and winding road, with all of the frustrations and delays, was worthwhile.