In his sermon on Sunday, September 25, the Rev. William Miller said, "God didn't send the storm. God seeks to work amidst the storm." He might have been talking about the Lesinas, who were stranded in the middle of the night, 40 miles north of Houston without food or water as Hurricane Rita bore down on the Gulf Coast.
"That's my angel right there," said Earl Lesina, pointing across the breakfast table at the young mother who rescued him and his wife Shirley from a parking lot in Waller, Texas sometime after midnight on September 23.
The Lesinas, both 73, had evacuated their flood-prone home in Deer Park, on the south side of Houston, with their dog, cat, a treasured quilt and some equipment in the back of their pickup truck. In 28 hours, they had traveled less than 60 miles, ran out of gas and food. Shirley was slumped over in the car, exhausted and dehydrated. They were about to let their dog go, hoping he could take care of himself, because they did not believe they would make it through the night.
"We were scared to death," said the former security guard. Earl said his wife couldn't walk and "guys were casing" his truck and the generator he had loaded in back. "I looked at this field of weeds next to us and I knew that's where someone would find us the next morning. I was terrified."
Comfortably situated at Camp Allen, the Diocese of Texas Camp and Conference Center, Kim Perry balanced her two-year-old daughter Emmy on her leg as she tearfully recounted finding the Lesinas. Although the stress of their earlier situation had passed, their desperation remained a fresh memory to the elementary school librarian.
"We were watching the news and could see the 290 traffic from our house," Kim said. "We took some drinks out to the people who were stranded. There were lots of people without air conditioning-sometimes 10 people in one car! Hundreds of cars had swarmed into the parking lot. All the restaurants were closed, there was no gasoline left."
Animals were overheated, she said. People were afraid they would be stranded on the road during the hurricane and there was no food or water available. "It didn't matter how much money you had. You were stuck!" Kim's husband Billy added.
The First Baptist Church in Waller opened at 9 p.m. that night and Kim helped there until midnight when she and Billy decided to offer their guest room to someone who really needed help. "It was stifling hot," Kim said. She smiled across the table at Shirley and, wiping tears from her cheeks, said simply, "They looked like they really needed help." Earl tears up as he interrupted, "God sent her to us!" Shirley nodded, rubbing the pocket angel that had not left her hand since their ordeal began.
"I thought the same thing," Kim whispered, "They could have been my parents."
"People don't just come along everyday. . ." Earl begins but trails off as the tears choke off his words.
Shirley had to be physically carried into the Perrys' home and slept on the living room sofa because she couldn't get up the stairs to the bedroom. At 73, she teaches ceramics to the elderly in Deer Park. She is in a wheelchair today, but is steadily regaining her strength. Her short, brown curls frame a weathered, determined face. Earl, wearing a t-shirt decorated with white Persian cats, delivers Meals on Wheels at home. They've been married for 20 years.
"I would have given anything for a glass of water," Shirley remembers. "I don't know how I drove as far as I did," she said, absently rubbing the angel again.
The Perrys were going to leave for Fort Worth to wait out the storm but once they had taken in the Lesinas, they called, Charlene Pena, Billy's sister and Camp Allen staff member, to see if the nearby conference center had room for all of them. They joined more than 250 others who had taken refuge there to wait for Rita to come ashore.
One of the treasured items Earl grabbed before leaving home was a quilt he had embroidered. "It won a silver medal in the Harris County Senior Olympics," he said proudly. The Lesinas packed light, Shirley said. "No use taking a bunch of stuff if we weren't going to have any place to put it after the hurricane." The quilt made the trip but got stalled in Waller. Earl presented it to the Perry's and wouldn't take it back over their protestations. "It is special," he said. "I made it and it needs to be with deserving people. This is where it belongs."
The quilt has five winning poker hands embroidered on the front but the winning hand was the grace that brought the Perrys and the Lesinas together on a fearful, sweltering night, alongside a crowded highway.
