May 18: Writing Prompt #138-Helping Hand

Tell us about the most surprising helping hand you’ve ever received.

I was lucky enough to have lived in a magical place where helping hands are everywhere you turn.  There’s the friend who offers to watch your toddlers for you when you have to go teach on another island for the evening and your husband is at work. Then, there’s the friends and even acquaintances who offer you their homes for housesitting and trust you with their pets too…all so you can have a house to stay in with your children after your divorce when you cannot bring your children into your strictly 21 and over bachelor quarters (BQ).  Then, there are other friends who take care of your oldest child while you go to the hospital in labor with your second and again, your husband is at work and cannot be there.  And the friend who watches your new baby when you have to take your oldest to the hospital because you closed the door on his pinky finger bad enough to need it surgically sewn back on. Oh my, what a morning that was! I am thankful for all of these friends, past and present, who have taken the time to care about what’s happening with me and my family and drop everything in their schedule to help.  In today’s stateside world, that is something hard to find except in the very closest of friends and family. 

But, this place is different in that it is really just a community of helping hands who come together when one of their own is sick or in need of financial assistance or even in need of a new home on another island that was torn apart by tropical storms.  These are the people who raise the money others need to get back on their feet (without a moment’s hesitation)…the people who organize dinners to be made for you after you have a baby or are recovering from illness. These are people who readily donate their organs to help others and are experts at putting together fundraisers to support each other.  It’s really quite amazing. The more I write, the more I remember…

For me, this type of community was surprising because when I moved there I had never met any of these people before, and they immediately took me in and helped me through the transition to island life.  They walked with me through pregnancies, raising young children, and through divorce and then remarriage. They loved and supported me like family. Of course, this was not the case with everyone, but the most surprising part was those who I became closest to AFTER the divorce…those who came out of the woodwork to assist me in even the smallest way and resisted judging me and/or the situation and instead just accepted me and made me feel whole again.  A big part of this “after divorce” community I discovered on a tiny island 50 miles away from my home island in a place called Roi-Namur.  These precious residents ALWAYS made me feel welcomed, loved, supported, and a part of the crowd. I would do anything for any of them as I believe they would for me.  They are so very, very unique, and I can never thank them enough for making those years a blessing instead of the painful mess they could have been.

Surprising helpful hands…I’ve had a few…okay, more than a few.  I am very blessed to be able to say I was once a resident of the Marshall Islands and in particular Kwajalein Atoll, where helping hands takes on a whole new meaning. J