In Rita’s Path
By Randi Custer

Editor’s Note:  This letter from a reader tells a touching story of faith in the face of calamity. 

I have a friend who lives in Hitchcock, Texas — just off Galveston Bay.  This is Ground Zero for Hurricane Rita.  Jackie had 16 children, born and adopted.  She has lost several children, her husband left her, she is poor, her LDS employer is struggling to keep the doors open, and her home is too expensive for her to live in.  She is trying to fix it up so she can sell it and move into something smaller where she can meet her budget. 

The backyard of her house is on the canal that leads to Galveston Bay.  She is a few feet above the Gulf, right in the path of the storm surge.  Now she looks at the probability that she will lose her job, her home, and most of what she has.  

Jackie is scared.  She wrote me a series of short emails last night detailing their preparations and fears.  Her sons were boarding up the windows as she sat in her office and felt it go dark.   She has cooked all the food in the freezer, packed the family photos, the important documents, and has now left for a daughter's home in Arkansas. 

Before she left, I sent her a series of emails encouraging her and pledging our prayers.  I asked her to go out and pick a flower, and to put that flower in a vase or glass on the dining room table as an act of faith that would be there on her return.  Her next to last note indicated she had picked a large bouquet and placed it on the table. 

Jackie Daly with one of her daughters.

Then I felt to send the following note and got the touching response below it:

        Dear Jackie,

Jackie responded:

Would that we all had such faith.  Maybe it's a movement in these last days.