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Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Honor memory by helping ministry help others
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No one had seen him in days, and that wasn’t the Craig A. Molnar whom management and guests at the Villa Lodge Inn and Suites in Lawrenceville had come to know.
When Sunday rolled around and he had not shown, management rapped on his door, then went inside Room 106. Molnar, 46, was slumped over a desk in his sparse room. The official cause of death has not yet been determined, according to the Gwinnett medical examiner’s office.
A month ago, I’d interviewed Molnar in that same room. He was chipper. Good news had rained down on him and brighter days seemed to beckon.
Months before, the Lawrenceville Cooperative Ministry had paid for his initial stay in the lodge. They also helped Molnar obtain some prescriptions to treat a fatal lung disease that kept him in and out of the emergency room, and prevented sustainable employment.
One Saturday he left a voice message, saying his first disability check had arrived in the mail. Linda Freund, who oversees the Lawrenceville ministry, helped him open an account.
“I’m fine,” he’d told me.
Molnar used to sleep in the woods and along the railroad tracks near Lawrenceville. His health, coupled, I’d imagine, with errant decisions through the years, put him there. Big deal.
Those of you who live smug, mighty and arrogant and tend to crow about how people need to help themselves can kiss my glass. What happened to Molnar could happen to anybody. To you.
I got a call Monday from a 51-year-old mother of two who can’t find work and is about to be evicted from her home. She wanted help and wanted me to know that there are plenty of people in Gwinnett just like her, struggling in spite of themselves.
With Molnar, I wrote a series of columns right before Christmas about the county’s growing homeless population. One night we ventured out to look for homeless people in some of his pre-hotel haunts. We didn’t find anyone, only remnants of lives.
No worries. Molnar had already exposed Freund and others to the reality of the situation.
It’s uncertain what type of burial the Michigan native will receive or when it will take place. The Lawrenceville Cooperative Ministry plans to have some type of memorial. I have a suggestion for those who may want to honor, in some way, his memory, initial reluctance and eventual willingness to share his story.
The Lilburn Cooperative Ministry needs to replace its heating and cooling system as well as its piecemeal computer network. The 15-ton heating and cooling unit alone could cost up to $18,000, but a ministry supporter has pledged to do the work at cost, around $13,000.
The Lilburn ministry runs a thrift shop to cover overhead costs, so all donations help the needy. It serves an average of 30 families a day, but “the biggest increase has been in people becoming homeless,” said Kay Whithear, director of the Lilburn ministry.
So, honor Molnar. Help this ministry.
“Knowing Craig helped us understand the needs of the homeless a little better,” Freund told me. “I take grace in knowing he knew the Lord, and is in a greater place.”
And that he didn’t die in the woods.
To help the Lilburn Cooperative Ministry, contact Kay Whithear at 770-931-8333. Donations may be sent to 5329 Five Forks Trickum Road, Lilburn, GA 30047.
• Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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