My grandfather died before I was born, before mom married dad, so I never knew him and he died unaware that the family would continue on. His picture sits on a dresser opposite the bathroom. For most of my male roommates and the husband, who ranks well above a roommate, his picture tends to turn away from the wall. Yes, when you exit the bathroom he stares right at you.
Anyway, my grandfather was a sharecropper in North Carolina, with 5 kids and the loopy woman I call grandma. And for a time had his father, Great-Grandpa Kelly come live with them. He was not a wealthy man. One holiday my aunts laughed about a time when the kids all had to share one candy bar and how they had to work the fields and then go to school the same day.
He was also a church deacon. My uncle, one of his sons. now serves as deacon for the same small church. My grandmother, was a deaconess.
I think of my grandfather now and again (though I never met the man) when I think of what non-profits can't do for the poor what the church can do, give them positions of authority and respect. What self-respecting charity would put someone from their client base in a decision making position to pick the CEO (pastor) and to run day to day operations? Maybe that's an unfair question. But I wonder.
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