Death in a tent camp: 'God was with us in that darkness'
As readers of this column know, I have recently become involved in advocacy for the unhoused. Much of what I do consists in delivering donations to a shelter site in the city where I now live. The site consists mainly of tents for unhoused people and a few trailers that were recently placed there, including hygiene trailers for showers.
During the months I’ve been involved, I’ve come to know and love many of the residents. My anger has steadily mounted in the face of the city’s refusal to take their needs to heart and address them. That anger erupted in uncivil treatment of a city worker on a day when I had been out in rain and then sleet, trying to get everyone in a tent (there were more residents than tents) before bad weather hit. The worker showed up and opened an office trailer; no one had been on duty before then. I regretted my angry outburst afterwards, but, to be honest, not very much.
All of that changed on a recent evening. I was called away from attending a city commission meeting by another person involved with the camp. A woman in her mid-30s had been found dead in her tent and residents were devastated. The woman, of Cheyenne and Arapaho descent, had not been seen since the previous Saturday. Residents thought she was at another site. No one had checked on her.
In the darkness of the camp that evening (there’s no lighting), some residents sobbed almost uncontrollably. One, a young woman who had been there for five days, was grieving deeply. She told me she felt like she had known the deceased for eight years. Though I am not a religious person, I prayed with this young woman. It calmed her.
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Shortly after that, I saw that personnel from the police and coroner’s office had placed the wrapped body of the young woman on a gurney outside of her tent. I approached and said a prayer. All in attendance immediately stepped back and assumed an attitude of respect. I felt privileged to be able to offer that prayer.
I share this now because I believe that God was with us in that darkness. The encounter with God enabled us to be not just civil but kind and compassionate. I apologized to the city worker for my earlier behavior. I have been changed — I’m sure in ways I don’t yet understand — by that young woman’s death.
We may be tempted to display angry, uncivil behavior in a day and age that is rife with divisions ― political, social and economic. As we struggle with these issues, please, let’s not forget that the most vulnerable among us rely on us to overcome our differences and help them. We who are privileged can be stung by unkind words and deeds, but we are not chronically hungry, ill, addicted or in physical pain without medical resources. We are not verging on death, alone in our tents, with no one beside us. In her last hours, I hope this young woman was free of pain. In her last moments, I hope she felt release. May her death inspire us all to come together for the greater good.
Nancy E. Snow is a professor of philosophy at the University of Kansas. She formerly was a philosophy professor at the University of Oklahoma and director of the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Guest: Death in tent camp a reminder that vulnerable are in pain, hungry
