Dear Diary:
Hello dear diary. I'm here to talk to you again!
My weekly visits with co-founder of Focus:HOPE Eleanor Josaitis are far from easy, yet engaging most times I'm there with this civil rights leader who hopes to return to work soon as she battles cancer.
When the Detroit riots ripped Motown in 1967, kiling 43 people and injuring thousands, residents seemed to walk out of town as they moved readily.
That same horrific year, the late Father William Cunningham, Eleanor Josaitis, and the late Father Jerome Fraser launched Focus:HOPE, each leaving "cushy" jobs and homes to mend unhealed wounds of division in Detroit.
Decades later, William Jones, executive leader now, sat one Sunday with Governor Jennifer Granholm, and me, while patient, Eleanor Josaitis, waxed eloquently despite the pain she endures these days, only eased with morphine when the ache overwhelms her.
Is it practical, intelligent, and going to help reach our goals, were queries asked when deciding
how to "fix" fractured lives.
She's still about hope -- that eternal virtue that stands while others choose to sit and say nothing in the face of injustice.
Eleanor is tenacious as she grips my hand when I lean over to kiss her hello when I visit.
Today, Jospehine Dare, the aide to CEO William Jones, reported that Eleanor was the best she saw her in months. She read the newspaper, smiled, and, probably winked once or twice, I bet.
"If anyone can beat the cancer, you can," I keep telling her as she
prayed a page from her daily devotional last Wendesday when Frank Kubiak read the script as Eleanor looked on.
She never gives up. But, the life-long social activist is weathering another storm.
"I refuse to be intimidated," she often says.
Her inner strength is hard as nail. Her faith as firm.
Eleanor is the first to arrive and the last to leave Focus:HOPE. I wonder who is now as she
has to be frustrated confined to a bed and a busy flow of visitors each day, away from her office.
Go Eleanor, GO! You can do this, dear friend.
Thank you for the update, she is my hero. Sending prayers for strength her way.
ReplyDeleteThank you for recognizing and documenting Eleanor's eternal hope; and may we all honor her by making sure her work lives on.
ReplyDeleteMy uncle was Father Jerome Fraser and his love, compassion and spirit is never ending. I take the love and compassion that he showed me and take it out into my community to love, support and care on others in Jesus's name! Thank you for mentioning him in your blog, he was a great man and loved the Lord and his family with all his heart.
ReplyDelete