Mercy's First Volunteer

Ed and Suzanne Leonard have a long history with the Mercy Centre.  Nearly forty years ago, Suzanne was Mercy's first volunteer teacher. It was the summer of 1974 and Suzanne was working at The International School in Bangkok, when a dear friend, Sue Morton, gave her Father Joe’s number.  Suzanne hoped to spend her summer holiday volunteering and when she called, Father Joe responded, “Come on down and take a look at us…. And we’ll take a look at you, too.”  Fortunately all went well that fateful day and Suzanne spent her summer in the Slaughterhouse neighborhood, working with the kids of the Klong Toey slums.

Suzanne looks back on her time with Mercy:

The children were wonderful.  My Thai was lousy so music and art was our connection.  The International School was rich in supplies and many teachers shared leftover crayons, paper and colored tissue for art projects. We sang.  In the 70's folk music reigned and Pete Seeger with his banjo was king.  My Thai teacher translated a song he wrote,  'I Had A Little Bird- My Bird Pleased Me' from English to Thai so we sang about birds, caribous, cats, dogs, pigs and snakes.

Before Suzanne left Thailand for Taiwan, a beautiful baby came into her life, and Father Joe christened her.  As time went by, she lost direct contact with Fr. Joe, but friends who remained in the area kept her abreast of what was going on in the slums.

Almost forty years later Suzanne and her husband Ed have reconnected with Mercy and for the past two years they have given generously to Mercy Centre.  Suzanne noted, “I never forgot Klong Toey and working with those kids.”

Suzanne talks about her memories from one of Mercy’s first preschools as if it were just the other day, barely managing the wooden planks that formed the slum maze’s paths:

The school building was a raised platform with three wooden sides and a sloping tin roof.  To get there we walked on planks placed above the mud. Two good teachers taught from 60 to 120 kids, whoever showed up each day. The children sat on the floor with low long benches in front of them. They used notebooks and pencils purchased, at a reasonable price, from the church. There was a blackboard on the wall facing the class.

Thirty-nine years later, Mercy has now educated over 50,000 slum children in their 20+ preschools and some of Suzanne’s students in that first preschool are now Mercy preschool teachers themselves.

When asked why Mercy? Suzanne replied, “because God has blessed us with the ability to help, and with Father Maier around we know the money will go where it is needed most; the children.”

It is clear that Suzanne’s days at Mercy have had a great impact on her life. She sums up what she learned while at Mercy so beautifully:

Kids are kids no matter where they are born...rich or poor.  The kids in that school were smart.  Any of them would have done well in my class at ISB.  All they needed was the opportunity to learn. The Klong Toey school gave them that chance.  The days spent in the school at Klong Toey were really the highlight of my time in Thailand. It was a privilege to be there.

To know Mercy, is to love Mercy. We are so grateful for all of our amazing donors that continue to support the families and children of the slums.  It has been just over 40 years since Mercy opened its first slum preschool and, with your help and people like Suzanne and Ed Leonard, we hope to continue educating those that might otherwise not have the chance to go to school.

But what makes Ed and Suzanne’s story even more interesting is their untimely love, which was spotlighted recently on their local news.

They met at 19, when Ed was at the Air Force Academy and Suzanne was a part time model and soon to be teacher.  But life and war would separate them for the next ten years. They reconnected when Ed reached out to her, while serving in Vietnam, and Sue just happened to be teaching close by in the Philippines. They planned to marry when they rekindled their love in South East Asia, but Ed’s flight was shot down and he spent the next five years as a POW and Suzanne spent it wondering and waiting.

Suzanne, believing Ed was dead, moved on, married and when Ed was released just days after her wedding, he came home to parades in his honor, but no Suzanne.  Two marriages later and 36 years after they first met, fate brought them back together. This year, Suzanne and Ed are celebrating their 17^th wedding anniversary at their home in Washington State! You can watch a wonderful story of their love, which was featured on their local news station, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuhMpv6UNMs

“Ilwaco’s Most Untimely Lovers”