When Susan Weliver learned her family’s Thanksgiving plans were canceled, she quickly turned to cooking for her neighbors instead.
Serving as many people in need as she could from her home — 26 on Thanksgiving Day — Weliver said she used Jesus Christ as an example of how to turn a bad situation good, especially in the midst of the coronavirus.
“I’m always for the underdog people; I’ve just been that way since I was a child,” Weliver said. “People were getting really upset because families weren’t gonna be able to get together for Thanksgiving, including my family.
“But I thought, ‘I’ve got neighbors around. I’m gonna call some of these people. If they want Thanksgiving, they can still have Thanksgiving,’” she explained. “I’ll make a drive-through service for one day. That way they can still be thankful for goodwill.”
Weliver’s compassion for others shined through more than her share of physical difficulties this Thanksgiving holiday. Suffering from diabetes since she was nine months old, complications have caused a lifetime of treatment and procedures. She is also visually impaired.
To make matters worse, Weliver fell and likely broke her left hand Wednesday evening, prompting a late-night visit to the emergency room and causing pain throughout the day Thursday. Swelling even caused firefighters to use specialized equipment to cut a ring off of her finger.
“The doctor said, ‘You need to tell the firemen since they did a good job of getting that off, to at least come by and see if you’ve got some pecan pie,’” Weliver said. “I said, ‘Guys, I won’t let you in my house, but I’ll pack you up a meal.”
“Sister in Christ” Jeannie Stevenson and husband Curtis, who met Weliver at Calvary Chapel, said her ability to serve others through such obvious pain is simply remarkable.
“The night before she falls — and the day of, she’s in the emergency room — and she still gets back here and serves,” Stevenson said. “She got to reach out to others with her gifts. It isn’t easy. It’s physically taxing. Her love language is cooking, one of many.”
Weliver also planned to take large amounts of leftovers to various locations around Crawfordsville for those who may be hungry, hurting or homeless. Unfortunately, an untimely miscommunication caused the leftovers to go unrefrigerated. Weliver planned to deliver meals and bags of food to homeless persons and any hotels in the area who may be housing victims of the pandemic.
“It breaks my heart because there’s a lot of people ... all they got yesterday was probably something out of the microwave, or if they have coolers, a lunch meat sandwich,” Weliver said. “My whole thing is I have one hope in this life: That I get to go home with Jesus Christ. That’s where the glory is. All the trouble — you’re not ever gonna match with what’s gonna be up there, buddy. No pain. No sorrows. No regrets. Just full of glory and we get to sing.
“I get to sing.”
