Feeding the hungry, comforting the sick

Today is a day to honor the ongoing struggle for equality, by remembering Martin Luther King, whose struggle for civil rights culminated with his April 4, 1968 assassination.

“Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men,” he said. “When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.”

Few people embodied that ideology more than a local hero who quietly did the work for decades until she passed away on New Year’s Eve. Ruth Henricks, beloved longtime owner of The Huddle restaurant, created a service that came to be known as Special Delivery. The service expanded in later years, but initially it focused on delivering meals to AIDS patients who were too often terribly ostracized in the early days of the epidemic.

When Henricks started her service, she did more than just give out free meals. She saved people from dying alone and falling into despair by reminding them during a time that seemingly no one else would step up that someone out there still cared.

Our lead story on Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a fitting remembrance of Hendricks’ local heroism, by our reporter Drew Sitton.

Thoughts? Opinions? Let us know what you think by emailing news@timesofsandiego.com.