A time of desperation leads a couple to strive to give hope to a community in need

Tom Ricke, far right and kneeling, joined other members of a mission team from St. Mary Parish in Greensburg and the Food for the Poor organization who are working to bring hope and housing to families in a poor community in Honduras. Other St. Mary team members in the photo are Linda Weigel, behind Ricke, and retired archdiocesan priest, Father Carlton Beever, next to Weigel. Representing Food for the Poor are Kitty Soriano, left, and Father Bob White, holding a stuffed bear. (Submitted photo)

(Editor’s note: As Pope Francis has announced that this year is a Jubilee Year for the Church with the theme, ‘Pilgrims of Hope,’ The Criterion has invited you, our readers, to share your stories of hope—how embracing hope has helped and guided you in the toughest moments of your life, how others have given you hope for your future, how your faith in God has sustained you and uplifted you in hope. Here is the first story in a continuing series.)
 

By John Shaughnessy

It was one of those moments that nearly everyone faces at some point—when a person desperately clings to hope during an especially tough time in life.

For Tom Ricke, that defining moment began on a Christmas Eve, shortly before midnight, when his wife Susan awakened him and said, “Honey, I can’t move my arm, and my legs are tingling.”

Ricke rushed her to a hospital near their home in Greensburg where her condition continued to deteriorate, with the left side of her body becoming paralyzed.

From there, she was quickly transferred to a larger hospital in Columbus where doctors, worried that she was near death, decided she needed to be taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis by Lifeline helicopter.

“I immediately went to the chapel at the hospital, dropped to my knees, prayed to Jesus and cried like a baby,” recalls Tom Ricke, a member of St. Mary Parish in Greensburg.

“I poured my heart out and asked God to save Susan for our children—Andrea and Luke—and myself. While praying, I promised Jesus that from this moment forward, I would listen and do everything that he asked of me, no matter what.”

As Ricke prayed, another challenge surfaced.

“It was decided that the helicopter couldn’t fly in the icy weather, so we prayed and waited for an ambulance with a paramedic on board for her to be transferred to Methodist,” Ricke says.

Amid the uncertainty and fear, Susan experienced a moment that gave her hope. During the ambulance drive to Methodist in the morning hours of Christmas day, she saw “a blue glow” and had “a feeling of peace and warmth,” experiences that led her to believe that the Blessed Mother and Jesus were with her.

That belief guided the couple through the tough times to come.

“Susan’s left side had become totally paralyzed,” Ricke recalls about her stay in Methodist. “When Susan wanted to get up, I would help her get her left arm around me, and Susan’s left leg and left foot would literally drag across the floor. During these times, sometimes we would laugh and sometimes we would cry, but we both knew and had no doubt that Jesus would take care of us.”

Following her stay in Methodist, Susan returned to Columbus Regional Hospital for eight weeks of in-patient physical therapy.

“I would work every day in Greensburg. And every day after work, Andrea, Luke and I would go to see her in the hospital,” Ricke notes.

“With sincere thankfulness and praise to God and his mercy, she was able to walk again. She was totally paralyzed. Now, she could walk. It’s miracles, miracles.”

‘We can actually see Jesus in each other’s eyes’

More than 34 years have passed since that Christmas Eve in 1990. Still, the experience has continued to leave its mark on the married couple of 46 years in this defining way:

Having clung to hope in one of the toughest moments of their married life, they have strived to bring a touch of hope into the lives of others through the years.

The couple has taken that commitment to an even higher level in the past two years as they have dedicated their efforts to improving the lives of people in Honduras.

Working through the “Adopt-A-Village” program of an organization called Food for the Poor, the Rickes are immersed in their parish’s desire to provide food, housing, training and economic empowerment to the Honduran community of Cucuyagua.

St. Mary Parish has pledged $1 million to the effort, and more than $900,000 has been raised so far, in just 15 months.

That investment has started to translate into the construction of homes and a community center, with 10 houses expected to be ready for Honduran families this spring.

“The parish is not the only place that has given,” Tom Ricke says. “We’re reaching out to other churches in the archdiocese, reaching out to all kinds of schools. When we reach out with open arms and hands and give our lives in total surrender to God’s will, miracles happen.

When we pour out our loving, giving soul to each other, we can actually see Jesus in each other’s eyes. We can feel his loving arms wrapping around us.”

Susan’s joy overflows when she considers how much money has been raised so quickly for the community in Honduras.

“This whole thing has been led by God!” she says. “God is just awesome!”

In the journeys to help the people of Honduras, one moment stands out to Tom Ricke.

“When we visited each individual family and their hut, we gave them beans, rice, flour and candies for the children,” he says. “While visiting one family in their hut, behind a plastic curtain, a grandmother was praying to Jesus. Our interpreter said she was praying for food for her family. When we gave her the beans, rice and flour, she immediately cried tears of joy and happiness in sincere gratitude to God for all of his blessings for her family.”

For Tom Ricke, it was another moment of hope fulfilled by God.

“I seek God in all things in my life by joining with Susan in daily morning and bedtime prayer, asking him to lead us in the right path and giving us strength and courage to follow it,” he says. “We have surrendered to God and asked that his will be done.

“We know we are here on this Earth to help other people. We want to give people hope. And it’s been such a blessing, just one miracle after another.”
 

(If you’d like to share your story of hope, please send it to John Shaughnessy by e-mail at jshaughnessy@archindy.org or by mail in care of The Criterion, 1400 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46202. Please include your parish and a daytime phone number where you can be reached. For more information or to donate to the effort of St. Mary Parish in Greensburg, visit the website, church.stmarysgreensburg.com.) †