Canton Tragedy

We got news this morning that at about 3 a.m. this morning, a man left his house – went back and burned it to the ground and then killed himself.  He left behind his wife and 4 children aged 13, 12, 6 and 5.  The youngest one is a girl.

I can’t even imagine what would cause someone to do that.  What turmoil he must have been going through.

So now the woman must pick up the pieces as best she can and care for her children. 

When we found out, we had a quick mini-meeting to figure out what we could do.  We know that the woman will need everything.  Blanca had to go to Santiago de María to get some medicines for her father.  She said they would take advantage of being there to look for clothing for the children.  There are several second-hand stores there.  I offered to drive so I could hlep.  I asked if we could go to the bank first (there is an ATM).  I wanted to help out but I had very little cash on hand here. 

We managed to get about 4 outfits for each child.  We don’t know the size of the woman yet – but for her we will all scrounge our own closets.  After the clothing shopping, we needed some food-stuffs.  I dropped the ladies off and while I was trying to find a place to park, I drove by a place that sells hammocks.  So thank you ATM - I decided to get a couple of those for the family. 

We’ll be going down to San Felipe shortly.

Blanca and Idalia are out looking for blankets.  We have towels we can give and a variety of kitchen goods.  We also have some bags of food to bring. 

We’ll have more information after we come back.

Such hardship.
Please offer up many prayers for this family!