Walter Hoving Home, 2

Continuing from yesterday:

Many of the women at the Walter Hoving Home come there from jail. Others are literally found on the streets of neighborhoods I avoid, by founders John and Elsie Benton. John Benton's little red book, One Lady at a Time, recounts harrowing adventures of witnessing about Jesus in places where I might think he's a kook to go. But the man gets results: For the most part (85%), these women do not go back to the streets.

(The book is free and I have a few copies, so email me if you want one, or send for it by clicking the link.)

 

Some would say the heart of a home is the kitchen. At the Walter Hoving Home, the heart is the Learning Center. Here, residents focus on the teachings of Jesus, and pretty much nothing else. For the first year or so a woman lives in the Walter Hoving Home, she doesn't watch TV, surf the web, or even read library books. She learns about Jesus Christ.

Oh--and please note the chandeliers, ceiling fans and columns as we go.

As I mentioned yesterday, the women do all the chores in the Home. (Even though the heart of this home may not be the kitchen, apparently working there is a blast.)

Larissa, at left in red, is in charge of "Blessingdale's," the basement cache of clean clothing, where each woman can "shop" for what she needs. No money changes hands; these items are donated (hint hint), and what the Home can't use is donated in turn to the Acts Thrift Store, a popular Pasadena resale shop also associated with Christian causes.

Teresa Wolf, Associate Director of the Walter Hoving Home, shows me around

The second floor is like a dormitory. Over the door of each room is a plaque with a word like "cheerfulness" or "loveliness" on it. There's a separate room where a woman can stay with her children when they come to visit. While you live at the Walter Hoving Home, you will be in company almost all the time.

(Another way to donate is to "adopt" a room. An old building like this always wants renovation to keep it up.)

The women learn that it's okay to love themselves. There's also an awareness that they're vulnerable to missteps. Therefore, their lives are very structured. Everyone works and studies all day. Meals are at an exact time. Each woman must raise a minimum of $500 in monthly donations while she stays there (although Teresa told me no one will be kicked out if she can't make it). This is why you'll see them at tables outside stores from time to time, handing out Mr. Benson's little red book.

It's not a prison or a rehab center. It's a choice the women have made in order to get a handle on chaotic lives.

I asked Teresa what happens if a woman doesn't get, or doesn't want to get, the Jesus part? "We'll find them another place," she said. "We don't think we're right for everybody. We're right for us."


Part 3 tomorrow.

Walter Hoving Home, 1

Teresa Wolf embraced me when we first met. "We're huggers," she said. Truly, I received more than my share of hugs during my visit to the Walter Hoving Home in Pasadena.

I had long wondered about the place. Then recently I met Montonya Sauls and Laurie Reno outside Smart & Final, where they were collecting donations. We got to talking and they invited me to make an appointment to come by.

Quoting Wikipedia: "The Walter Hoving Home is a non-profit, faith-based rehabilitation center serving women 18 years and older who have been involved in drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution and other life-controlling problems."

But it's not a rehab facility, says Associate Director Teresa Wolf. "It's a home." The women who live there are her "sisters." Dad and Mom are John and Elsie Benton, who founded the home in 1967 and named it for Walter Hoving, the one-time Tiffany and Company chairman who funded their work. (Incidentally, a couple of Mr. Hoving's descendants are named Petrea.)

The Walter Hoving Home is actually three homes: the original in Garrison, New York, another in Las Vegas, and the Pasadena branch, housed in what was originally Pasadena's Mira Monte Hotel.

The tour Teresa gave me began at the front door where you approach the reception desk (personed by a resident). To the left of the photo frame is a sign that greets you with your name on it. "Most of the women who come here have never been important enough to have their name on a sign," said Teresa. My heart warmed at seeing my name there, but I didn't photograph it for the sake of the privacy of the others listed. I probably could have, though. Nobody seemed to mind my presence, nor that of my camera. They welcomed me.

Teresa watches over lunch set-up in the dining room. 

The residents do all the work, from cleaning to cooking to chores. It's a lovely house, and for a while, it's their home.



Part 2 tomorrow.