Tom’s Story
In February of 2024, Catholic Charities’ Veterans Services Case Manager Janis McCullough, received a call from Wichita Falls-area homeless shelter, Faith Mission. The shelter had a veteran who needed a Greyhound bus ticket. They asked if Catholic Charities could help and what started as a simple request turned into something much more.
Tom*, a veteran of the U.S. Army, came to meet Janis and explained that he was homeless and had finally decided to make the trip back home to Minnesota to be with his family.“When he came in for our initial meeting, he was coughing and coughing; his color just wasn’t right,” Janis, a veteran herself, remembered. “There was just something about meeting him that day that stuck with me – I can’t explain it.”
So, Catholic Charities and the Nortex Regional Planning Commission (NORTEX), a local partnering agency, worked together and purchased him a bus ticket and sent Tom on his way.
A week later, Janis got another phone call from the shelter, this time informing her that Tom was back in Wichita Falls. While on his way home, Tom experienced a medical emergency. After being hospitalized in Dallas, he had somehow been transported back to the shelter.
Janis tried to purchase a second bus ticket but soon found she was unable to. After several attempts to purchase a ticket with no luck, it seemed like Tom wasn’t going to make it home anytime soon.
While on vacation in Kansas City, Missouri, Janis just couldn’t get Tom off her mind. “I couldn’t sleep at night. I was so mad because I couldn’t understand for the life of me why I couldn’t get it (the Greyhound ticket).”
Finally, after being told that her credit card was to blame, Janis had enough. “I went directly to the Kansas City Greyhound Station and purchased the $53 ticket myself,” she recalled.
Within five minutes, Tom had a new ticket home.
“I guess I was led by my heart to just do it,” Janis said. “It was just something that I felt like needed to be done – it couldn’t wait.”
When Tom came to Catholic Charities for that first meeting with Janis, he brought all his belongings with him, carefully packed in a worn-down backpack. That was all he had.
Janis remembers that his head was down and that he looked embarrassed, but she was so proud of him for coming in and asking for help. “It takes a lot for veterans to come in and ask for help, it really does,” said Janis.
Weeks later, a letter arrived in the mail. It was a thank you letter from Tom. In it, he said, “I was so worried how I was able to do this (get home). I asked for help, I prayed for help, and it came to me. . . Thank the Lord there is help like this for a person like me.”
For Janis, receiving Tom’s letter was proof that she was doing something so much greater than simply purchasing a bus ticket. “I think he knew he was sick and knew he needed to get back to his family in time to see them again,” she said. “I’m just so glad that I could play a small role in helping make that possible.”
*Name changed to protect anonymity.