Hilton Head loses a quiet warrior for the unseen, unheard homeless and hungry | Opinion

Tonight in Beaufort County, for many people the American dream will be as realistic as visions of sugar plums dancing through their heads.

“At any one time, we estimate roughly 1,000 individuals are experiencing homelessness or immediate housing insecurity (for example, pending evictions, staying with friends temporarily, etc.),” said Ben Boswell, administrative manager with the Beaufort County Human Services Department.

Not that many years ago, the idea that one homeless person lived on Hilton Head Island made people gasp.

But some people did see this invisible side of life, and many have tried to do something about it.

We just lost one of the earliest advocates for the homeless and the hungry.

Freddie Hodges died Aug. 28 in Las Vegas, where she moved several years ago to be near children after decades on Hilton Head Island. She was 87.

Among the things she left us was her memorial service plan. She will have those gathered singing Bob Dylan and “Joy to the World.”

Fredrica Foster Hodges was a pistol.

She once wrote a letter to the editor that began, “And the war on women continues …”

Andrea Siebold became a dear friend after this: “I first met her when she was looking for someone in the church to help her sort through the ‘stuff’ in an old lady’s decrepit house in North Forest Beach. Whoever would volunteer could not be bothered by cats as the old lady had a houseful of them -- in the cupboards and everywhere! What a time we had.”Freddie helped start three soup kitchens on Hilton Head and gave $500 to help one get started in Bluffton.

She was a ring leader at my church, First Presbyterian, to join the Family Promise program where churches house a homeless family for a week at a time.

She was a ring leader for the church to start a People In Need program, directly assisting people community wide.

She was vice chair of our community’s Homelessness Task Force.

She was involved with the Hunger and Homeless Coalition of Hilton Head Island, now the Hunger Coalition of the Lowcountry, best known for its Backpack Buddies program partnering with six churches to make sure all our elementary school students have food for the weekends.

Freddie was vice chair of the Martin Luther King Committee for Justice, and recipient of its Community Service Award.

She was an elder and deacon at First Presbyterian, an NAACP board member, a local and state Planned Parenthood board member, and for more than 20 years the business manager for Randy Young’s Custom Upholstery and Window Designs.

Freddie knew homelessness personally, within her own family.

But seeing the unseen and being a voice for the voiceless was also part of her faith.

She said when people raise questions about dealing with the homeless and all their personal baggage, “I always go back to the question, ‘What would Jesus do?’ There’s no way He would ignore someone who is ill or destitute.”

I once went to a forum among these foot soldiers fighting for the poor in a county they called islands of wealth in a sea of poverty.

I heard Neighborhood Outreach Connection leader Narendra Sharma say we must create opportunities, not hand-outs. He said you do that by listening to the people. He said we need to empower them, see them, feel them and treat them with a sense of dignity.Ben Boswell of the county said hundreds of people and scores of nonprofits are trying to do that.

He’s seen a big difference in attitudes in the past two years.

“People say THEY need to do something,” he said. “Who is THEY? What’s your solution? The homeless just want to know people care. That’s where Freddie comes in.”

Her mantra was, “Live the life you want your children to witness.”

And she asks us to sing along:

“Yes, how many times can a man turn his head

and pretend that he just doesn’t see?

The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind,

The answer is blowin’ in the wind.”