Ted had spent the night at Hope among the single male clients. Despite what had happened between he and his wife the night before, he felt energized about the key importance of his work. He knew he had expertise that could be of assistance in New York City. His experience in organizing, housing, feeding, and clothing people without homes would be extremely helpful he was certain. With his connections to capital, he knew he could have a team on the ground with real supplies and support within days.

Ted knew he had to go.

On the morning of the twelfth, he was up early calling his directors, asking them to come in early. The team procured a large 18-wheeler for hauling supplies and had set a side-committee to work on stocking it. The team also quickly created a task force to travel across the country to offer their expertise in the search and recovery efforts and a skeleton team was elected to remain on standby in Seattle. Among the members who would travel was Ted himself and his key project manager Melissa.

The thought to call home didn’t cross his mind until after lunch – Sally didn’t answer.

She’s probably still mad at me and honestly I can’t blame her. But really, she said some pretty terrible things to me as well. I’d say it’s pretty big of me to be the first to break the ice and then she won’t even pick up the phone? Niiiice! Ted thought.