It was two a.m. on March 5th when police officers knocked on James Stark’s apartment door.
“‘Sir, there’s a car on top of your car.’”
When a bewildered James went to see what that looked like, he found the trunk of his now severely mangled Dodge Dart in the back seat. The driver had lost control, the car jumped the curb, and the damage was total.
This was not James’s first brush with vehicular misfortune. One night in 1972, on the roads of his hometown, Two Harbors, Minnesota, James experienced a near-fatal crash while behind the wheel of his Ford Falcon. Two and a half days afterward, when he woke up in the hospital, doctors told him about his two cracked vertebrates and how he was lucky to be alive.
Because of his injuries, James was not able to finish high school. Later, in 1976, James joined the Navy. However, his injuries would again be a guiding force in his life. Eventually, he would be honorably discharged.
A long and winding road finally led James to Corpus Christi, Texas. He ascribes many events in his life to something his dad referred to as “the Stark Curse,” but he loves where he lives now.
“I used to watch Gilligan’s Island growing up, and I always wanted to live somewhere with palm trees,” James says. “Right outside my door, there are two great big ones.”
He also talks about loving the beaches and how everyone is always smiling, happy to be there.
On one of his recent walks to the grocery store, he says he stopped to talk to one of those smiling strangers. James was running one of his regular errands on foot. He is self-described as a sixty-five-year-old man in decent shape, but he says, “My ankles were getting swollen from walking everywhere!” The two stood in front of the building where the man worked. After James shared his story, the man urged him to come into his office. He knew someone who could help.
The office they walked into was the American Red Cross Coastal Bend Chapter, and the person was Kimberly Knight. She is the Regional Director of the Service to the Armed Forces Division.
“Within an hour,” James says, “I had a brand-new bike!”
Today, when James needs to go somewhere, he is grateful for the Red Cross. He said he walked by that office every time he went to the grocery store and had no idea, they could help him.
“I put a USA sticker on the handlebar, and in the middle, I put an American flag sticker with my initials below. Right under the seat, I put a red cross.”
Every day, the American Red Cross provides 24/7 global emergency communication services and other support in military and veteran health care facilities across the country and around the world. The Red Cross helps members of the military, veterans and their families prepare for, cope with, and respond to, the challenges of military service. Volunteers provide home comforts and critical services on bases and in military hospitals around the world. We support military families during deployments and emergencies, and we continue serving our nation’s veterans after their service ends. The Red Cross has been serving the military for more than 140 years and has deployed alongside military in every U.S. conflict since the Spanish-American War. If you or anyone you know needs assistance, please contact 1800-Red-Cross.
Texas Gulf Coast American Red Cross 