Many of you have written me to ask about the status of James and Ruby, whom I wrote about recently.

I am pleased to say that the response has been tremendous. Here is the current status:

• We currently have rent covered for the next six weeks. That means we will still be short at least 4 weeks.
• We currently have seven weeks of groceries covered. Again, we are still short about 3-4 weeks.
• We have the bus passes covered.

Some new needs have appeared.

James and Ruby use a prepaid cellphone from Boost Mobile and right now, between talking to insurance companies, scheduling doctor visits and attorney appointments, they are running through the minutes.  I know Boost minutes can be bought at Sprint stores and I believe at Wal-Mart. If you can pick some up (any denomination is appreciated) you can drop them in the mail to me or email me and I will arrange to pick them up.

Another problem they are facing is simple boredom and depression. They live in about 200 square feet, in which they have crammed a bed, two chairs, a dresser and a television. As James told me the other day, it is so small they have to go outside to change their mind. James is supposed to restrict his movements, so he spends most of his day in front of the TV. Of course, there is no money for cable, so three fuzzy channels ai about the best they can hope for.

However, they do have a VCR. If any of you have any VHS tapes (remember those?) you would want to give to James and Ruby so they can have some entertainment, again, just write me and we will work it out.

Over the next few weeks, several of us have decided to take turns taking Ruby and James out to dinner in order to get them out of the house and out of that neighborhood for a while, anyway. If this is something you would like to get in on, just let me know.

James and Ruby are proud people, and taking charity hurts them, even as it gives them hope. They feel very loved, and not a time I visit goes by that James does not thank me over and over for all that all of us are doing and that Ruby does not smother me in hugs and tell me that she is thanking God for all of us every day.

As we used to say back home, they still have a long row to hoe. Thanks to all of you, though, it has gotten a lot shorter.