Surprisingly Homeless: Mary in Olympia

Joyful Hands Ministries did their usual feed this Saturday morning, in the rain and the cold.  About one hundred showed up to get the usual breakfast burrito of casserole top with sausage gravy, and a cup of coffee, fruit drink, hot chocolate or mocha to drink. In line was a face I had seen once before; a short, full figured, young black woman.  As before, she had a guitar in a case slung over her shoulder.  After getting a bite and a drink she approached me to ask who we were affiliated with.  I noticed shy was soft spoken to the point of seeming shy.

I explained the story behind Mama Dee, the ministry, and why she provided the breakfast.  She nodded understanding and I asked about her guitar, if she played.  She answered yes, and I asked if she played well enough to get through a song.  She nodded again and I explained we had just been commenting that there had been a lack of music this morning.  I asked if she would play a tune.  She took the guitar from her shoulder and I assisted her in getting it out so the case didn't get wet on the ground.  She took a knee and began to strum a folk rhythm.  At first, I thought she was a bit off key, and then she began to sing.

I felt my mouth drop open.  Conversation around us came to a stop.  A young boy that had been assisting with serving drinks started sway side to side in a private dance.  I began to smile as I noticed all the other amazed faces around us.  When she finished she looked up to me and all I could say was, "Where the heck did that come from?"

Her name is Mary.  I believe she said hailed from Philadelphia.  She is recent to living on the streets in Olympia.  If the interest she generated with that one song is any indication, she won't be on the streets for too long.  The webmaster for Joyful Hands Ministries was already getting her approval to record several of her songs for the website, and other people were coaching her on the ins and outs, or was it dos and don'ts, of the street music scene.

I hoped to see her tonight at the evening meal put on by Crazy Faith Ministries just down the block from the city bus barn.  I was not disappointed as evidenced by the photo up top.  I have invited her to continue coming to the Saturday breakfast and I will hunt up a folding chair for her to sit as she serenades us.  She seemed pleasantly agreeable to the task.

God brings strangers in to our midst for reasons unbeknownst to us.  Ours is not to question why.  Her music may be a message for someone.  It might be a message for us all.  It might just be music to bring a bit of brightness to the hearts of these people.  As with many folk artists of the past, trials and tribulations only add to the message behind their art.  It could be, this is her school of hard knocks; the life to give meaning to her music.  I only hope she finds a path, an outlet, allowing her to share her talent.

God blessed you, Mary.  Now bless us with your music.