Trust of a dishonest contractor ended in court and my mom and dad lost. I was 4 years old. One minute Mom and Dad had the most popular home-cooking cafe around. Then it was gone, and the shack we lived in remained unfinished (for the rest of their lives). Dad was a beaten man. Mom became the anchor in our lives.
That first winter, Dad was in his 60s as I am today and hunger was an issue. My sister’s boyfriend catered to restaurants in Seattle. Out of the blue he became our guardian angel and filled an empty freezer with meat, fish, and vegetables. When it was gone, carbohydrates became the main dish. Those empty calories sometimes hang from my body as a reminder of “back in the day.”
In the 1970s, Americans worried about hunger and took care of it. The Reagan years of “welfare queens” and people on the dole, even just for food, became an issue and has remained so to this day. We need to get back to giving people “a place at the table,” as it is simply the right thing and Christian thing to do. The documentary “A Place at the Table” is now playing in theaters. For more information: http://imdb.to/tqrj2E.
Jim Comrada
Vancouver
