When volunteer Matt Enriquez called his 89-year old grandfather, Dr. Ramiro Peña, to tell him he was deploying to Kerrville with the Texans on Mission flood response there, he ended the call with a surprise proposition: “Why don’t you deploy with me?”
Even more surprising? Peña, a retired Temple surgeon, said yes.
“Matt said, ‘Come on. We’ll find something for you to do,’ and so here I am,” Peña said.
After losing his wife of 67 years a year and a half ago, Pena said: “Matt, his mother and another daughter have been trying to rescue me. They’ve dragged me back into enjoying living again. Originally, I was pretty depressed. My wife and I were very, very close.”
Enriquez, a member of the chainsaw team of Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy, is active with several other TXM teams around the state.
“With a young family, sometimes scheduling doesn't work, so a lot of bluecaps have been very gracious to let me jump in and even more gracious to let me and my grandfather join today.,” Enriquez said.
Despite some back pain, Peña, like his grandson, jumped in to help remove debris from a flooded home near Hunt. He said he was “surprised with the dedication and the selflessness of the men and women that come into this type of work, and I'm moved emotionally.”
As for Enriquez, he said he is there “just to help and to try and show others Christ through me. There’s very little I can do on my own, but God works through me. My grandfather joining me was icing on the cake for me. It’s probably one of the most memorable times we've had together."