Reflections from Precious Blood Volunteers
Tim Deveney, Precious Blood Volunteers Director, asked this year’s volunteers to answer three questions:
1. What is/are some relationship(s) that have stood out for you during your time as a Precious Blood Volunteer?
2. What are some of the experiences that have stood out for you during your time as a Precious Blood Volunteer?
3. How have you grown during your time as a Precious Blood Volunteer?
The following are their answers.
Leah Landry, pbmr
My most impactful rela-
tionship as a Precious Blood
Volunteer has been with the
first young woman I met at
pbmr. Meeting and getting to
know her throughout the year
completely changed my world-
view. She is a 23-year-old young woman who was
born and raised on the south side of Chicago. I am a
23-year-old young woman who was born and raised
in the suburbs of Chicago.
By becoming friends with this woman, I see first-
hand how the system is set up in a way that allowed me
to go to college and start my career while it has hindered
her at every turn. She is determined, however, and it has
been an honor to walk with her as she got a job, found
housing and daycare, and dedicates her whole life to
making sure her three-year-old daughter can have a
better one. I’ve witnessed her fight to get a job for three
months until she finally secured a good one. I’ve driven
her to the hospital twice—once as her sister gave birth
to twins and once when her boyfriend was shot at on
his way to work. I’ve watched her parent her extremely
energetic three-year-old, even when she’s exhausted from
working six days a week and cannot possibly answer the
question “Whatcha doin’?” one more time.
Getting to know this young woman has personalized
a life that I only knew from statistics about gun violence
and poverty. Her friendship has given me a whole new
perspective on the challenges people face in Back of the
Yards, the strengths of the community that we tend to
overlook, and on my own upbringing and privileges I’d
once taken for granted. I am so grateful for her friend-
ship and for continued patience as I learned and grew
and tried to understand as best I could.
8 • The New Wine Press • June 2018
I have worked at pbmr for nine months. In that time,
two of the young people at the Center have been shot
and killed. These experiences, especially the death of
Branden a month ago, have shaken me. Branden was
the first young person I met at the Center. He was at the
Center almost every day and was always the first guy
to greet me when I walked in. I knew that the young
people were in danger every time they walk outside, but
I don’t think the reality of that hit me until Sr. Donna
told me that Branden was dead. Branden—who had
been at the Center a few hours before, who had shared
his Doritos with me just a day before, who’s bright smile
and beautiful dreads were such a common sight that I’d
started not to notice—was dead. Shot and killed in his
grandma’s backyard.
The fragility of life has never been that close to me
before. For someone younger than me—and healthy
and strong and so full of life—to be dead was incom-
prehensible. And not just dead but murdered. It seems
different somehow than someone who dies from a
sickness or even a freak accident. It was intentional
and cruel and unnecessary. I’m not sure I’ve even fully
accepted Branden’s death yet. Every time I see his
photo I have to remind myself that he’s gone, that he’s
not going to come back.
I’ve heard about the shootings in Chicago my whole
life. But first with Isaiah and then with Branden, I see
that these events are not just statistics. It’s a trauma that
affects so many lives. And if Branden’s death has shaken
me this much, what must it be like for the people who
have known him his whole life, who have grown up
in the neighborhood and experienced countless other
murders, and who don’t have the choice to leave as I do?
Gun violence in Chicago no longer feels like a hot but-
ton political discussion. It has a face and a name and an
experience for me. The memories of Branden and Isaiah
will stay with me long after I leave the Center.