Mother Wright: Angel to the Hungry
11 May 2009 ~ Categories: blog • eco-living • events • wellness
This is the inspiring story of an unsuspecting hero who recently passed on, but first she fed many lives.
May Anne Wright, known to her East Bay community as Mother Wright, was just an ordinary woman who was inspired by a lucid dream in 1980 to help the world’s hungry.
She started small, using her $236 social security check to buy weekly meals for the homeless at a local Oakland park. They called her “The Mother Theresa of Oakland”.
Mother Wright’s own life had been a difficult one. She grew up poor in the South and lost her mother at a young age. She was forced to escape an abusive husband as a young adult and fled cross country.
Where she ended up was far from “home” and among strangers, making ends meet as a low-paid manual laborer.
But Mother Wright had a knack for creating community wherever she went. Besides her own twelve children, the poor people of the East Bay soon started to look at her as a sort of mom.
Not just interested in providing food and shelter, Mother Wright thought it equally important to provide the homeless with dignity, and insisted on serving meals in style, with tablecloths and proper place settings. She didn’t just take pity on her subjects; she offered them respect. And that made all the difference.
Mother Wright considered feeding the hungry her calling and made it her life’s work. Hers is an inspiring story of vision, tenacity and self-sacrifice.
By the end of her life, Mother Wright’s benevolent reach had extended to all corners of the world. Through the last three decades of her life that she performed this miraculous work, she consistently refused to accept any pay for her efforts.
Mother Wright passed away recently at the age of 87 and left a legacy behind. If you’re as moved by her story as I am, consider contributing to The Mary Wright Foundation, which will continue to help the homeless long after she is gone.
Her devotion to the people of Oakland is her lasting legacy, and she won’t quickly be forgotten.
I believe heroes like Mother Wright exist as examples to us all. Like Gandhi and all great peaceful leaders, her life’s work was not just about making a difference as an individual, but showing the world that absolutely anyone can make a difference.
That includes you and me.
What’s your cause?
Amy
