Billy, the True Giver
Remarks at the Interfaith Memorial Service on January 14, 2020
by Vicki Judice, Executive Director of the Harry Tompson Center
I’m often asked how I stay hopeful in the face of so much sadness and suffering. It can be difficult encountering guests at the Rebuild Center, all the while aware that the average age of death is 50 years old for those who have lived outside for more than seven years. The hard work of our staff and volunteers at the Harry Tompson Center, as well as other agencies such as Depaul USA, Catholic Charities, Covenant House, Travelers Aid, NOPD Homeless Assistance Unit, City of New Orleans Health Department, Salvation Army and others in moving people off the streets into housing, inspires me and gives me hope that more lives can be saved. It also gives me hope when I encounter someone who has been going through a really hard time living without housing and then I witness them doing the very same thing that I’m trying to do: trying to help the world be a better place, even if just for one person at a time. I realize then that there is more in common with the people we serve at the Rebuild Center than things that divide us.
One person who recently brought this realization home to me is Billy Shepherd. Billy very much wanted to be here tonight to share his story with you, but tragically, his daughter was in a car accident in Texas, so he had to rush to her side. I assured Billy that we would keep them in our prayers tonight.
What Billy wanted to share with you is that while living for 1 ½ years in his van, there were plenty of reasons to give up hope: his car was repeatedly vandalized, he was having trouble finding a job, his savings quickly ran out. Even after all of his possessions fell out of the back of his van on the way to his new apartment, he did not despair. Billy said, “The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, ‘What’s more important? Getting the key to your own residence or a few material things you can replace?’ My faith in God allows me to believe that others needed my stuff more. I feel like I ‘donated’ the possessions that fell out of my van to those who might have needed them more. That’s when I realized God was saying Out with Old and In with the New.”
That’s what Billy wanted to share with you. What I want to share with you about Billy is this. I learned from Billy about the real meaning of being a True Giver recently on – of all days- “Giving Tuesday.” You remember Giving Tuesday, right? It was a day when many of us were frantically contacting our supporters on Facebook, Instagram, email; you name it, we were asking everyone to give an online donation to support our good work. That very same day that I was encouraging people to be a True Giver on Giving Tuesday, I see Billy stride into our center with a brand new bike and new lock that he had purchased himself for one of the other guests he knew needed a bike. He had no awareness about Giving Tuesday. He was just doing what he felt he could do and should do to help the world be a better place, just like you and I try to do. Billy – the True Giver – is doing just fine.
