Editorial: No place like home

The tall, thin man spoke quietly on Jane Morgan's front porch at 9 a.m. Saturday, but mostly he listened.

And when he left, he stooped over to hug the young mother. He then hugged another donor on the porch before driving away from the double-wide mobile home just north of Prairie Road on the Rathdrum Prairie.

Jane gasped; her eyes filled with tears and her hands trembled.

In them was a check for the entire past-due mortgage payment of $1,005. And that was just the beginning. In wave after wave, supporters pulled into the gravel driveway to see how they might help.

The donations kept coming because that isn't what Jane and her husband, Jason, asked for. As this newspaper reported in a story that day, they weren't seeking handouts; they had asked people to come to their yard sale and buy whatever household goods they had to sell. A Brady Bunch of sorts, Jane's and Jason's families had merged through marriage, and with six children facing homelessness, they decided they'd sell everything they had if that's what it took to keep a roof over the family's heads.

Of course, once the story was published on cdapress.com, the armchair quarterbacks and societal critics came out barking. None of the vicious commenters acknowledged that no matter how the parents arrived at the point where a home was about to be lost, the six children who depended on it were wholly blameless. And for those who care, the circumstances that led to the near loss of the home were as extraordinary - and personal - as the sad fact of foreclosure is common.

Fortunately, enough readers saw through the malignant mist of suspicion to ensure the family has time to get on its feet. Jason, a former construction worker who wasn't home Saturday because he was at his new job, will get his first check soon. Jane will continue to seek part-time work wherever she can yet still make time to care for her big, young family.

We close this story with the same happy ending that we have noted so very many times over the years. Particularly for those who work hard, who do their best and promise to help others when they're in a position to pay it forward, there might be no more compassionate place than right here. Time after time, even those who have little to give step up to help someone who is even less well off than they are.

We have four fantastic seasons and a glorious tapestry of lakes, rivers and mountains. We have good schools and strong leaders, superb facilities and abundance galore. But other communities have those things. What they don't have is you.