Monday, November 10, 2008

"The Good Samaritan"

In a time where our troubles can seem all encompassing, and that no one else can be in the same predicament comes a lady of true virtue a "good samaritan." I heard this story as I was driving into work and just had to find it in print, it is as follows directly from CNN.com

Tracy Orr sat in the back of the room and prepared to watch her foreclosed home go up for auction. Tha's when a pesky stranger sat down beside her and struck up a conversation. "are you here to buy a house." Marilyn Mock said. Orr could not hold it in. The tears flowed. She pointed to the auction brochure at a home that didn't have a picture. "that's my house," she said. Within moments, the four bedroom, two bath home in Pottsboro, Texas went up for sale. People op front began casting bids. the home that Orr purchased in September 2004 was slipping away.

She stood and moved toward the crowd. Behind her, Mock got into action. 'She didn't know I was doing it," Mock says. "I just kept asking her if [her home] was worth it, and she just kept crying. She probably thought I was crazy, 'Why does this woman keep asking me that?'"

Mock says she bought the home for about 30,000. That's when Mock did what most bidders at a foreclosure auction never do. "She said, 'I did this for you. I'm doing this for you,'" Orr says. "When it was all done, I was just in shock."

"I thought maybe her and her husband do these types of things to buy them and turn them. she said, 'no, you just look like you needed a friend.' "

"All this happend within like five minutes. She never even asked me my name. She didn't even ask me my financial situation. She had no idea what [the house] looked like. She just did it out of the graciousness of her heart.

Orr says she had taken out a mortgage of 80,000 in 2004 when she first bought the home. At the time, she says she worked for the U.S. Postal Service. But she lost her job a month after taking out the loan when she says the Post Office fired her over a DWI while off-duty. She says a wrongful termination lawsuit is pending.

Without a job, she fell behind on her payments. She sold some property in 2006 for $12,000 and paid it to the mortgage company, thinking she had done enough to save herself from foreclosure-but to no avail, she says.

As for Orr's payments now, Mock says, "we'll just figure out however much she can pay on it. That way, she can have her house back."

Why be so generous?

"She was just so sad. You put yourself in their situation an you realize you just got to do something," says Mock, who says she has trouble walking by homeless people on the streets and not helping them out.

"If it was you, you'd want somebody to stop and help you."

Orr, who nearly lost her home, says her new found friend has "given me back faith and hope to keep going and hold my head up."




I found this story so hard to believe, with so much unjust in this world. I thank CNN for reporting it and Mrs. Mock for taking one step forward in the life of another. I do not have the resources to help in the same manner, but you just gotta give something back whenever you can. Their are lots of people who aren't as fortunate as Mrs. Orr, but they too could use a little saving. Try and remember that with the Holiday Season approaching, help when you can and you too can make a difference. THANKS!!

1 comment:

Geriatric Nursing said...

Thank you for sharing that heart warming article. I heard of a story this week where a woman was having a yard sell and selling off beautiful antiques. A gentleman went up to the woman and asked her why she was selling such wonderful pieces for so little. She explained she was selling her things so she could make her house payment that month. The gentleman asked her if she had any silver or gold. The lady told him she had sold her gold and silver jewelry last month to make last month's mortgage payment. These are hard times for many.