Saturday Service

It is early on a warm, muggy and quiet Saturday morning in May on the west side of Boerne.  Within minutes a flurry of activity erupts as cars, SUVs and trucks converge, parking near the end of a long driveway.  Homeowner Carol Praetorius is already sweaty as she watches the swarm of arrivals make their way up the drive.

"We went from an annual income of $100,000 to $20,000 overnight," she is explaining to an early arriver.  She quickly paints a big picture of a seemingly bad run of luck involving the loss of her family's primary income, a father's physical abuse of her mentally retarded child, Charles, now fifteen; tossed in with Carol's own acute health issues, highlighted by two recent back surgeries.  A look into this woman's eyes is to understand a little more about what the human soul can withstand.  "At least I have been able to conduct my swimming lessons in the summer," she adds. "I'm not sure how we would have gotten by without that."

Carol breaks off conversation politely to rejoin the flock of workers who now occupy almost every nook of her 2-acre lot off of Upper Balcones Road.  Groups of two to ten are busy filling a large cavity with dirt, nailing a new sheet of plywood to freshly exposed two-by-fours on an ailing shed, or loading rusty sheet metal into one of the three flatbed trailers.  Chainsaws growl, seemingly from every direction. 

A local civic organization, Rotary Club of Boerne, organized the project as one of a number of service-related projects undertaken every year by the club.  Rotarian and project chair Ralph Lehner identified this opportunity upon inquiring with the Hill Country Daily Bread.  "There was no shortage of ways that Carol needed help," said Ralph.  So he devised a plan of attacking four of the most pressing and difficult chores he identified along with Carol, organizing the club into four teams.  An estimated thirty workers now occupy Carol's lot.

If Carol harbors any bitterness, it doesn't come across in conversation. "God has just blown our socks off," she says of others' generosity throughout her trials.  She's grateful to Kendall County Family Services and Hill Country Daily Bread for their support over the past year and a half.  "We've just really been blessed," she says with gratitude, and struggles to maintain composure.  I can't help but feel there must be some exhaustion in those tears after all she's been through, but somehow I find my encounter with Carol uplifting.

She apparently drives forward through life with remarkable faith, and a hope for better times ahead.  She dreams of finding financing -- a grant, maybe -- for a full-fledged aquatic center for conducting physical therapy.  "That would be an ideal way for me to get back to work," she says with a smile.  Whether or not she can make that dream come true, you get a feeling that because of her spirit and faith she'll do better than just survive.  For now she teaches swimming lessons in the summers, which brings in needed income.  She teaches all ages through private lessons or small groups.  As a matter of fact, she says, she taught children of some of the Rotarians working at her home today.  It's the disability payments, though, that provide most of her income, and she has not yet been given a green light by her doctor to seek employment.

Asked if there is one thing that, if provided, would bring her the most peace, she says, "I applied over a year and a half ago for an adult male mentor for Charles.  He needs a role model."  Those interested in such a mentoring opportunity are encouraged to contact Hill Country Daily Bread, at (830) 249-0025.