COLUMBIA, S.C. — Rebecca Glover would be the first to tell you that Allen Benedict Court wasn’t much to look at.
Her yard was mostly dirt, paint was peeling on the ceiling and the walls, cable cords snaked from the upstairs back-bedroom window then through the hall, down the stairs, across the walls and ceiling of the first floor till it reached the back of the television. A rule of no drilling into the walls made that the solution.
Floors were threadbare linoleum. Her unit had a washing machine and a clothes line out back to dry the clothes.
Taking trash out to the dumpster resulted in neighbors stepping up and walking along, filling her in on all the goings on in the neighborhood, sometimes taking the trash out for her.
The nearby drugstore had a pharmacist that she really liked who would call and check on her, sometimes just shooting the breeze for a few minutes.
The Drew Wellness Center, a place to meet others, to go to the gym, swimming lessons and health classes all within walking distance and a trip to the grocery store didn’t involve a bus trip.
No, she would tell you a second time, it wasn’t much to look at, built in the 1940s. Long non-descript brick buildings. The plans for construction at the time included 244 dwelling units of which 182 were leased before the official move-in in date of November 15, 1940.
Currently the waiting list for public housing in Columbia is at 8,617 applications.
But after 15 years at Allen Benedict Court, Mrs. Glover knew how to get around.
She raised her grandson at Allen Benedict Court. The whole complex kept an eye on him, they did that with all the kids who lived there. Everyone kept an eye on everyone’s kids, she said.
But then one night all of that changed.
January 17, 2019
Two men, who lived in apartments at Allen Benedict Court, died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning according to the Richland County coroner Gary Watts.
It was after midnight when the Columbia Fire Department knocked on Mrs. Glovers door. Everyone had to go, grab what you can and leave, its not safe to stay here.
The next day a bright yellow sign appeared on her former apartment door, no one could live here.
Apartment 4F in building F. She wore the key around her neck like jewelry, now it felt heavy.
“This is it”, she said, “I ain't never coming back.”
She only spent a week or so in a hotel before she was placed in a new apartment complex.
Her new apartment is a one bedroom, one bath down North Main Street.
Her new place is about 10 miles from old apartment that she called home for 15 years and not near as old as her place at Allen Benedict Court.
It’s nice and clean. Freshly painted. Her daughters have come by to help her fix it up a bit, she has a place for her freezer and she can walk to the complex’s community center.
She doesn’t have a washing machine—no hook ups in the new place. There is a laundry room but some of her things don’t fit—comforters and its usually crowded. Her apartment is on the first floor so no walking upstairs which is a plus.
Unlike her old place she can’t walk to the grocery store and no full-service gym and wellness center can be reached on foot.
She is about a block from a bus stop.
She is learning the new bus routes and she says the laundry mat isn’t too far a ride, but she misses the convivence of washing her clothes at home.
Leaving Allen Benedict Court
Her money isn’t going as far as it did.
After being displaced she received donated bus passes and that helped a lot for a while. She also got some household supplies and food. It all helped.
But because she has to travel further and nothing is in walking distance, more money is spent on bus passes and now the laundry mat too.
She wants, hopes maybe the folks in her community center can go out and play mini-golf. She loved the outings at Allen Benedict Court. She wants to play mini golf and never has. She goes on the days they meet at the community center and sometimes they do painting or have little get togethers and she hopes they will be taking some day trips, as mentioned mini-golf is at the top of her list.
There are new friends to be made and she chats with her neighbors.
She talks fondly of her old home. She doesn’t want to go back, she has turned in her key. For Mrs. Glover Allen Benedict Court is just a memory.
A part of her past.
She hates she is so far away from a grocery store. And as the weather turns hotter and summer comes in full swing. A trip to the store will be like doing a chore on the sun. Ice cream may be difficult to bring home.
But her family helps her out as much as they can, and she would be the first to tell you what a blessing they are to her.
Her grandson helped her move out the final day she said goodbye to Allen Benedict Court.
She is settled into her new place. She misses her old pharmacist, who still calls, but now is a longer bus ride away.
She is trying to stay positive and thinks that a fresh start is good. But it’s hard starting over at 64.
She likes seeing other parts of the city.
She says that she is making new friends and sometimes she sees old ones riding the bus and she’ll pass her stop just to keep chatting, it’s hard to give up on old friends she says.
She misses her friends.
Its hard to start over when you are 64.
And the woman at the Goodwill who kept an eye out for the things that she liked and would point them out to her when she came in to shop.
But sometimes, riding the bus, she spots a new Goodwill, a new place to try.
It’s all new.
A clean slate and miles away from the tragedy that took the lives of her two neighbors.
Sometimes she wonders if it could have happened to her, it keeps her up sometimes.
Starting over isn’t easy, but Mrs. Glover says, “You’ve got to go on. You’ve got to.”
Mrs. Glover has moved one more time.
Still in assisted housing, but her new apartment has washer and dryer hookups.