A 74–year-old widower from Medford, N.J. has turned his sad circumstances into a generous quest to help the Puerta Rican island recover. Joseph Badame by every stretch of the imagination has lost everything. He is lonely and grieving his wife’s death and has subsequently lost his whole livelihood.
He is struggling with debt because of medical bills and a loss of income. Things have gotten so bad that he is now going to be evicted from his house. He currently lives in an 8,500-square foot custom home that he built himself. The basement is completely equipped with bunk beds, refrigerators, laundry facilities, showers, and a fallout shelter. Badame and his wife were survivalists. His wife’s name was Phyliss and, according to him, it was her idea.
45 years ago, they decided to start stockpiling everything in case of an emergency. He said that he doesn’t consider himself to be a doomsday prepper, just prepared. In his mind, the crisis would be an economic crisis combined with war or violence. He wasn’t prepping for the apocalypse. The idea came mostly from their experience in the 70s as part of the Peace Corps. They saw towns and people completely destroyed by riots, and this inspired his wife to prepare in case anything like that happened to them.
He still believes the crisis is coming but to him, once he received his eviction notice he saw no point in trying to continue his survival center. He felt the last 45 years of his life had been a waste. Thankfully, he was about to be given new purpose. He held an estate sale for his massive home and met a woman named Victoria Barber. She came to Badame’s estate sale, and that was where he discovered that she was from Puerto Rico and had had several relatives displaced and without food.
He quickly discovered what he could do with all of the food in his survival basement. He decided to donate it to those in need in Puerto Rico. He gave it to Barber to disperse. According to her, it seemed like there was a whole town’s worth of food to bring to Puerto Rico. According to the Washington Post, there were 80 barrels that were filled with dried goods like rice, flour, dried beans, and even some chocolate mixes to curb that sweet tooth. All of this food will now be going to two Puerta Rican towns to feed the starving people. The supplies will be flown to San Juan, and then trucks will deliver the food to Barber’s hometown of Arecibo and another town on the other side of the island.
Barber says that what Badame is doing is “lifesaving.” She says perfectly that “…he prepared for one group of people, but he ended up helping an entire town.” Badame says that Barber gave him hope in a time when he was feeling tired and depressed. He may not have been able to use his goods for what was originally planned, but maybe that was the plan the entire time. Either way, the 45 years of planning, purchasing, and storing he and his wife had done are still being put to good use.
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Source: Washington Post
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