Open Forum: Kathy was compassionate, empathetic, generous

I will sorely miss Kathy Nerangis because Kathy was my Den Mother! Let me explain. In 2009 we were new to the Winchester area and our church was getting involved in a new program to shelter the homeless during the winter; it was the Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter or WATTS. Kathy took a leadership role in our church’s WATTS program — her specialty was breakfast. It took a special person to get out of a warm bed at 4 a.m. on cold, frosty February mornings so she could drive to our WATTS shelter to cook and serve hot, nutritious breakfasts to our WATTS’ guests. Kathy organized a small group of us into the Christ Church WATTS Breakfast Club, which we later renamed the Mole Patrol because we worked in the dark so we wouldn’t wake up the guests. Kathy was our Den Mother.

Kathy took time to get to know our WATTS’ guests and helped those that she could find jobs, which led to some guests reconciling with their kids and other family members. She especially looked forward to giving our WATTS’ guests knitted prayer squares with inspirational messages.

Kathy was compassionate, empathetic, and generous with her time, money, and talent. Over the years her energy waned but she always showed up to hand out prayer squares and to hug the guests as they left the shelter. She never asked for any personal recognition but was the first to point out and ask for the recognition of deserving volunteers.

I will deeply miss our Breakfast Club/Mole Patrol Den Mother but I’m sure that somewhere in heaven Kathy has already set herself up as a Den Mother organizing her fellow angels to support our neediest friends and neighbors.