Others accused her of changing sides for attention.

She put away the comments and returned to the less public work of making calls for the school pantry.

Mrs.

Rivas organized a weekly meal pickup at the church.

Luis helped coordinate rides to appointments.

Terrence convinced several coworkers to form an emergency fund, and management eventually agreed to contribute.

The changes were modest, imperfect, and dependent on continued effort.

That made them more real than the flood of sympathetic messages that had arrived the first night.