Rosalita and I sat together on the plane. She was scared and so was I.
I heard the children crying.
“Hug your teddy bears. Everybody hug their teddy bear.”
The plane hit bumps in the air and it would bounce like a car on a road
with holes and rocks. When the plane came into Little Rock it dived straight
toward the ground. When it touched down the wheels screeched. Then the engines
roared.
When we got off the plane and went into the terminal, the airline had
someone lead us to the escalator.
“If you are afraid of the escalator, there is a pair of steps beside
it.”
On the ground floor a woman met us and led us to the far end of the
terminal. She gathered us around her.
“I am Mrs. Hammons from the Pulaski County Office of Emergency
Management.”
I interrupted her.
“Mrs, Hammons, many of these women cannot understand English. If you
would like, my friend Rosalita can interpret for you. Just give your instructions
one sentence at a time.”
She agreed. The two women office workers and some women that I didn’t
know looked very annoyed.
Mrs, Hammons continued a sentence at a time.
“The bus outside will take you to a church which has set up a shelter
for women and children. At the shelter there will be representatives of the Red
Cross, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Employment
Security. They will only come to the shelter several times a week and only for
two or three hours so watch the bulletin board for the times that they will be
there. There will be breakfast in the mornings and sandwiches at lunch and
supper. Each of the mothers will receive a money card for $200 for herself and
one for each of her children. This is money to buy clothes and other items you
need.”
The bus took us to St. Edward’s Catholic Church. There was a school
next to it. They had taken the school desks out of the classrooms and filled
these rooms with cots. There was a gymnasium which had showers. The gymnasium
itself was a play area for the children. There were basketballs and soccer
balls, jump ropes, and hula hoops. The cafeteria was where we would eat. It was
certainly more comfortable than the hangar at Osceola.
Mrs. Hammons took me aside when the bus reached the school.
“I don’t know what to do about you. Since you are not with a mother, I
am supposed to turn you over to Child Protection custody. They would try to
find a foster family and meantime they would send you to a youth facility.
Neither option would be very nice.”
“Couldn’t I stay with Rosalita and her mother>”
“I really shouldn’t, but I saw you on that television news cast where
you were leading the children in games. I really think you would be a big help
here, especially with so many Mexican mothers and children. They like you. I
think you should stay with them, even though it is against the rules.”
Providentially, there was a Spanish-speaking nun, Sister Carmela, who
taught at the school. She had worked in a mission school in San Salvador and her
Spanish was fluent. Since she was a nun, the Mexican mothers looked up to her,
She took Rosalita and me. Together we formed a team.
“Girls, the families will be getting settled today. This afternoon I
want us to sit down with the mothers one by one and help them make up a
shopping list to use those $200 money cards. If they go into Walmart, without shopping
lists, they might be confused and spend all the money without getting all they need.
Tomorrow we’ll take three mothers at a time. Each one of us will accompany a
mother in the store and help her find the items on her list. They will probably
take their child or children along with them. We can help mind the children
while the mothers shop.
Rosalita and Carmela sat with one mother at a time. Several of the lists had Spanish on one side and English on
the other side. Those were for me. While they were helping the mothers make
shopping lists, I had the children out on the gym floor. The boys were kicking
the soccer balls. The girls were either jumping rope or twirling the hula
hoops.
Thursday was the most exhausting day of my life. Sister Carmela took a
van that belonged to the school and hauled each group to Walmart. The children
wanted to go to the Toy department. I couldn’t allow them to leave their
mother, because I had to help her shop. In choosing clothing, the mothers
wanted to hold the children’s clothes up against them to see if it was the
right size. The child or children would be whining and tugging at the mother’s
skirt. When a child was particularly bad, the Mexican mothers didn’t spank
their child, they twisted their ear.
I accompanied two mothers and their children on two trips. On the
second trip, after the second mother was finished shopping, Rosalita and I had
to accompany Rosalita’s mother while we did our shopping because she had our
cards. I was able to get a skirt, a pair of jeans, two blouses, socks, a pair
of tennis shoes, and some personal items.
Sister Carmela did some grocery shopping while Rosalita and I shopped.
That evening we smelled an odor coming from the kitchen that made our mouths
water. She was frying hamburger with onions and lots of peppers. At supper time
she had stacks of tortillas, the fried hamburger mixture and all the fixings
for burritos.
Everyone went to bed that evening tired but happy after a full day.
One by one Sister Carmela spoke at length with the women about their
future. Several of the injured men were husbands of the women in the shelter,
but others did not know what the fate of their husbands had been. None of the
women were citizens. None of them wanted to return to Mexico. She tried to
explain to them that something would have to be worked out for them with the
immigration officials.
Rosalita and I kept the children busy playing in the gym. At one point
I said to the children,
“We are going to have a Sunshine Parade. Everyone needs some sunshine
and fresh air to stay healthy. We are going to go outside and march in a Sunshine
Parade. Everyone, keep hold of the hand of the one in front of you and the one
in back of you. Anyone who lets go of a hand, has to go back inside.”
Rosalita repeated my
instructions.
Outside I sang while they marched,
“Jesus wants me for a sunbeam to shine for Him each day.
In
every way try to please Him, At home, at school, at play. A sunbeam, a sunbeam, I’ll be a sunbeam for Him.”
The
children loved their Sunshine Parade and we decided to make it a regular part
of play time. After lunch the children went in for their naps.
Sister
Carmela came to Rosalita and me after lunch.
“You
two girls are a big help to me and to the mothers. As a token of appreciation,
I would like to treat you. Let’s go the mall and see a movie and then we can
have hamburgers and milkshakes for our supper. We’ll be back before dark.”
We both clapped our hands and hugged Sister
Carmela.
The
mall had a lot of stores. Its cinema was showing seven different movies. We
looked at all the posters and picked a movie about high school foibles and
romances. Sitting in the darkened room, watching the movie, we forgot about the
earthquake, the shelter, and our missing family members. We lived in a whole
different world. We laughed and cheered and booed. After the movie ended we
didn’t want to go back “home”.
There
were a half dozen vendors in the Food Court. We chose Wendy’s and got a
hamburger and a Frosty and savored the change from sandwiches and milk.
We
had to take two buses to get back to the school. We got off the bus, crossed
the street, and were walking toward the school entrance. From behind the trees
lining the sidewalk, three young men leaped out.
“Ay,
Chiquita, sweetie pies, how about some kisses for three lonely guys? See, I
told you guys that building is filled with feminine wares.”
The
young man who had been speaking came up to Carmela, grabbed her by her hair,
and attempted to push his lips against hers.
“Girls,
run for the entrance and lock it behind you.”
Rosalita
and I started running, but the other two young men were right behind us.
Several times one of them grabbed at me and tore my blouse, but I got away. I
opened the door and let Rosalita go past me. I was sure the young man would
capture me, but he ran into the door and fell down unconscious. The other young
man charged at me. He could easily have gone through the open door, but he also
ran solidly into the door and was knocked out cold.
Carmela
yelled to me,
“Get
inside and lock the door. I have a key. I see those two are on the ground. Mine
is too. I knew enough Karate to defend myself. The police have been called and
they are on their way.”
After
I showered and went to bed, I hugged teddy bear and said,
“You’ll
never believe what happened to us tonight.”
“I
saw the whole thing my child. Who do you think made those two guys not see
straight.”
“I’ll
always feel safe knowing that you are protecting me!”
“It
is not me who is protecting you, but God Himself and I think you forgot your
prayers. You owe Him a big thank you.”
I dropped to my knees immediately, thanked God
for His protection and asked Him to watch over my father, my mother, and my
Grandad.
The
only emergency contact number they had was Mrs. Cartright who was staying at
the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Stauer. The hospital called her on
Saturday morning.
Mrs.
Cartright knew Dana, her father and her mother. She called the Red Cross and
asked them if they had a Dana Cusak, a Karl Cusak, or a Mary Cusak in their
records. They told her they would call her back. Next she went to her father, told
him that the old man she brought back on the plane had died. She asked if he
would be willing to pay for the man’s funeral and probably a grave site.
“Of
course, Melodie. Those people lost everything in the earthquake. They are in
the same boat with you. Whatever I can do.”
Before
the end of the day Melodie Cartright had called a funeral home to pick up Mr.
Fairfield’s body and had found out the shelter in Little Rock where Dana was staying
and that Karl Cusak was working with the National Guard in Blytheville. The Red
Cross said that Mary Cusak had been found by a rescue team and brought to the
collection point at the airport in Osceola. From there casualties had been
flown to hospitals in a half dozen cities. Unfortunately they had not recorded
to what city she was taken.
On
Sunday Melodie called the National Guard in Blytheville and asked to speak with
Karl Cusak or the officer in charge or the Red Cross whichever was available to
come to the phone. Eventually someone from the commanding officer’s office
answered the phone. She explained the circumstances and asked for Mr. Cusak to
call her on her cell phone as soon as possible.
Next
she went to the shelter. She asked for Dana Cusak and was told that Dana had
gone to a Baptist Church about six blocks from the shelter. She should be
coming back within the next half hour. Sister Carmela asked why she was looking
for Dana. When she told her, Sister Carmela said,
“That
is very sad news. I know she loved him dearly.”
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