On the Saturday morning before Thanksgiving, the warm kitchen of Providence Hall filled with the scent of roasted turkey.
Volunteers prepared trays of green beans, yams and mashed potatoes topped with pats of melting butter. In the adjoining room, two assembly lines filled plates with the Thanksgiving feast, sweetened with cranberry sauce and a slice of pumpkin pie. At the heart of the bustle was Thelma Billy, a petite, 80-year-old Filipina woman wearing a pageboy hat and an apron emblazoned with a quote from St. Teresa of Kolkata — “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
Thirty-one years ago, Thelma was lost in Washington when she saw a man digging for food in a trash can. The man told her he hadn’t eaten in three days. Thelma quickly bought the man a hot dog from a street vendor, but that night she couldn’t sleep thinking about him. The next week, she cooked three plates of food and brought them to the park where he was staying. Since then, Thelma has fed Washington’s homeless every Wednesday. “I’m not trying to feed everybody — just one or two that I can,” she said.
Though Thelma and her husband, George, buy some of the food they distribute, much of what she brings to the homeless is donated by friends from her parish, St. Leo the Great Church in Fairfax, or by other supporters of her mission. The parish Knights of Columbus council, of which George is a member, donates food and their hall for Thelma to prepare holiday feasts ahead of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. The volunteers who prepped the Thanksgiving meal included members of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, the Divine Mercy Prayer group, friends and co-workers of longtime volunteers and one of Thelma’s nurses, said George. Second graders from St. Leo the Great School and Girls Scouts from the parish donated cookies and candy.
Bing Branigin first met Thelma while interviewing her for the newspaper of the Filipino embassy. Soon after, she began volunteering, and for years now she’s helped Thelma coordinate the distributions. The two of them continued the work even through the pandemic. “There was a need,” said Branigin simply. Lyn Zappata has volunteered with Thelma for 15 years, and she likes to bring new friends every year. “Giving back in the community — I don’t think we can get enough of it,” she said. Father Juan A. Puigbó, pastor, calls Thelma “an example of Christian life, a warrior, a true witness to our faith.”
When the hundreds of Thanksgiving meals were packed in boxes and stowed in bags, volunteers carried the food to cars headed to one of the biggest homeless shelters in Washington — the Community for Creative Non-Violence on Second Street. There, they planned to set out tables for the men and women to eat, and to distribute hats and coats as well.
With her age and growing health issues, Thelma doesn’t know how much longer she’ll be able to continue her work. But she’s grateful for all the help she’s received over the past 31 years, and she isn’t done yet.
“God is so good and he always provides,” said Thelma. “He’s the one who will tell me when I stop.”
Maraist is a freelancer from Reston.
