This time, Mama is in need

ADAMS RUN -- Everybody in this rural community knows Mama Sylvia because her door was always open and her table always full.

For most of her 73 years, Sylvia Brooks Council has been taking care of children, her own and everybody else's.

"She wouldn't let anybody's children go to day care until they could walk and talk and take care of themselves," explained Cathy Young, one of Sylvia's six children. "Mama would say, 'they ain't dogs and cats, you know.' "

But Mama did take in strays. Mostly around dinner time.

"On Sundays, Lord, there were always 30 or 40 people showing up at Mama's house for dinner," Cathy said. "There was no color, no race, everybody just came to eat. Sometimes I'd get there late and wouldn't get nothing to eat and Mama would just say, 'Oh well, you gotta move your feets a little faster.' "

That's just the way it was around Mama Sylvia's modest brick house on Mauss Hill Road. Always crowded. Always joyful.

Until the fire.

Smell of smoke

On Dec. 3, Sylvia and three great-grandchildren she's raising were settling in to watch her favorite TV show, "Let's Make A Deal," when Raven, 12, smelled smoke and said the house was on fire.

"I tried to throw a pot of water on it, but it got bigger all of a sudden," Sylvia said of the flames that started in the attic from electrical wires.

By the time the St. Paul's Fire Department got there the house was in flames, gutted. There was no insurance.

Last week, the smell of smoke, burnt wood and memories were all that was left of the home she built in 1971.

She's now living with her daughter, Brenda Brooks, in a mobile home in Ravenel, along with six other family members.

"I feel bad, nervous, upset, I can't hardly eat," Sylvia said of her loss. "We lost everything but the clothes on our backs. The little boy didn't even have shoes."

Dangerous enemy

When I visited Sylvia last week, that little boy, James, had on a pair of Spider Man slippers, but the mobile home was crowded with so many people living there.

Help arrived the night of the fire when Red Cross volunteers assessed the damage and gave Mama some cash to tide them over.

But the lady who has always done everything for everybody else is now in need herself. And since she doesn't know how to ask for it, allow me to do the honors.

Those wishing to help can make donations at any Wachovia Bank branch into a special Mt. Zion AME Church account designated for Sylvia Council. Also, donations for fire victims are always welcomed at the Lowcountry Red Cross, 8085 Rivers Ave, Suite F, North Charleston, SC, 29406 (764-2323).

If history teaches us anything, it's that fire is a devastating, dangerous enemy any time of year, but especially during the holidays.

Reach Ken Burger at kburger@postandcourier.com or 937-5598.

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