Being outside is a comfort to Linda. The other day she stood alone on a patio at Maryhouse daytime hospitality shelter and looked up at the leaves on the trees, her lips moving in a conversation that nobody else could hear.
Linda, 49, had a smile on her face. Her mood was calm.
"I love the beauty," she said. "I like to be outside. I enjoy the peace and quiet and the trees."
At Maryhouse, a shelter for homeless women and children, many women like to spend daylight hours on a walled patio called Loha's Garden.
Women who struggle with mental illness stay on the patio because being indoors makes them uneasy.
Some women spend the night on the move, afraid to bed down anywhere. When the patio opens, they stream in for coffee, for support groups or to catch up on sleep.
It's a placid environment in the middle of the bustling Loaves and Fishes food program, situated in an industrial and warehouse district north of downtown.
Maryhouse does not open until 8 a.m. But women pack the patio at 7 a.m. waiting for breakfast or to use the showers.
So Loha's Garden has a playground for children, tranquility, safety and camaraderie.
What's missing? Simple wooden benches. That's all Connie Frank and Rebecca Hugo, Maryhouse co-directors, are asking from Book of Dreams readers.
There used to be five but now there are two – and one should be tossed out, its slats warped so that sitting is uncomfortable.
Some women, tired from walking all night to stay safe, like to nap on the patio, their belongings gathered around them. Benches would get them off the cold ground.
"That would be nice," Linda said. "It gets busy here."
Needed: Four benches
Total: $1,450
Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.
