#18 UMTV Web Brief 9/3/02 -

Welcome to UMTV’s web brief. I’m Reed Galin.

For thousands of families who lost loved ones in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. last September, television delivered the horrific news … the events broadcast live and continuously. But for most of us, of course, news that a loved one has died...or will - is delivered in a much more private moment. Does that make it any less painful? Probably not. Imagine if it was your job to be the messenger. Is there a good way to deliver bad news?

Norman Lake (showing tattoos): "Each of them have a little story."

Nancy Yelton: “It’s a very traumatic thing to have a diagnosis of cancer, whether it’s a curable cancer or not.”

ONCOLOGY NURSE, NANCY YELTON, SAYS HONESTY AND LOVE ARE REQUIRED WHEN IT’S TIME TO TELL A PATIENT THERE IS NO CURE.

Nancy Yelton: “This is a time of their life when they need more love than at any other time.”

IT’S AN EXCRUCIATINGLY DELICATE MOMENT. HOW DO YOU SAY WHAT NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR?

Nancy Yelton: “I think it’s more of a shock for families than it is for patients, because our patients know pretty much what is going on inside of them.”

A LIFE-LONG UNITED METHODIST, YELTON SAYS HER FAITH HELPS HER CONFRONT THE FEARS PATIENTS EXPERIENCE.

Nancy Yelton: “And we become closer to God by doing what we feel is His work.”

Norman Lake: “God’s going to carry me through this or He’s going to take me home.”

DOCTORS AND NURSES, TOO, MUST FACE DEATH AND, LIKE THE PATIENT, LEARN MORE ABOUT LIFE.

Nancy Yelton: “It makes me stronger, gives me more courage to go on to the next.”

NORMAN LAKE’S BAD NEWS CAME FROM NEAR STRANGERS. YET BECAUSE IT WAS SPOKEN WITH COURAGE AND LOVE, IT HAS HELPED MAKE HIS LIFE WORTH LIVING - HOWEVER LONG THAT MAY BE.

Clark Carr is a pastor in the Baltimore Conference and a major in the Army National Guard. On 9/11, he accompanied the military officers who had to tell families their loved ones had died in the Pentagon.

We normally aren’t in the position to do notifications ourselves as chaplains. We don’t want necessarily to come off to families that are in grief to be the bearers of bad news. We want to be able to be there as the emblems of hope. And so the casualty officers are the ones that will make the actual death notification.

If grief needed to be followed on with a prayer, we would give a prayer. Or if the family member just needed to talk through some of their issues, we were there to be in dialogue with them. Or if there was hysteria that erupted, we were there. So some of the notifications might take five minutes, some ten minutes, some four hours.

None of the notifications went unappreciated, because they had been mulling over this for weeks, and to finally get the news was a sense of completion and closure, but at the same time, there was an agonizing dimension of finality.

It remains the great irony of this country - that many citizens of the wealthiest nation on earth cannot afford enough food. The challenge is enormous in many cities, and in our largest city, hit by the recent recession and the results of the World Trade Center attack. Now, as reporter Jim Melchiorre tells us, a church that has focused on this issue for years is very busy once again.

SINCE 9/11, DOREEN WOHL SEES MORE HURT IN PEOPLE WHO COME TO THIS FOOD PANTRY.

SHE ALSO SEES MORE PEOPLE - TWICE AS MANY AS WHEN WALL STREET WAS IN FULL BOOM.

Doreen Wohl: “People were hurt, emotionally hurt…and it was not a time that people should come to the pantry and find that there was no food. So we overspent, we spent enough money to keep food on the shelves.”

THE PANTRY’S ALWAYS IN HIGH GEAR, PROVIDING THREE DAYS OF FOOD FOR EACH FAMILY, AND GIVING MORE THAN JUST WHAT’S ON THE SHELVES.

Rosa Espinosa, Pantry Customer: “Around my neighborhood, I went to another church to get some food. It was my first time there, but they talked to me in such a way that I’ve never returned there. I like coming to this place because people treat me with respect here.”

FOLKS WHO COME TO THE PANTRY, INSIDE CENTURY-OLD ST. PAUL AND ST. ANDREW UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, KNOW THE WORKERS HERE REALLY CARE - ENOUGH TO SCHEDULE LESSONS ON HEALTHY COOKING…ENOUGH TO RESPECT THEIR CUSTOMERS’ DESIRE TO SHOP FOR THEIR OWN FOOD IN THEIR OWN ETHNIC TRADITIONS.

Doreen Wohl: “And that’s a big difference than the packed bag, where church members pack a bag and hand it out.”

THIS PANTRY SERVES UP THE BEST KIND OF NEIGHBORLINESS, IN A TIME OF UNCERTAINTY AND CHANGE - A REMINDER THAT THESE WALLS HAVE SEEN HARD TIMES MANY TIMES … AND HAVE ALWAYS MADE IT THROUGH.

The anniversary of the attack is not particularly important to the people at the pantry - they have to take it one day at a time.

On the next UMTV web brief, a United Methodist ministry rises out of the wreckage at the Pennsylvania crash site.

“The families are so far away that they can’t come here and take care of things, so the people here felt that they wanted to do it for them.”