Social comments alert. This is another post where the intent is not to stray into politics although it can be construed that way.

An interesting story came in to the paper and was passed to me. The article will run next week. The essence is a woman and her older brother lived in Homestead back in the 1980s under very difficult circumstances. Her mother had made some really poor decisions that caused her to be away from the kids for a while and when she took them back, it seems to have been only marginally better. The point is a man in Homestead “hired” the kids to help them out and they sold subscriptions to the local paper. That added income to their mother working at a low-paying job did enable them to at least have a place to live. The guy continued to do nice things to help out and was an inspiration to her brother who had no father figure. The girl actually was still in touch with her kindergarten teacher in MA who apparently also recognized the problems in the family and served as “a mentor”. The situation in Homestead didn’t last more than a few years as the mother married badly again, moved the family back to MA, and was then murdered by her husband. This time the 12-year-old daughter and her brother were split up to be raised by different family members. Not surprisingly, they each had coping issues and each decided to enter the service as soon as they could as a way out of their circumstances. The brother joined the Navy and the sister the Coast Guard.

The brother served one enlistment (might have been a little longer), got out and started his own small business in MA. The woman stayed in the Coast Guard for a career, and had multiple assignments in Florida as well as other places. She retired to FL with her family, but also spends time in MA helping her brother with certain aspects of his business. In the course of the years, they lost track of the man in Homestead who helped them and the woman hasn’t been able to find him through social media or standard searches. One of the aspects of the article is perhaps he or someone who knows him will reach out to re-unite them so they can assure him his long-ago kindness has not been forgotten.