Oklahoma City clerk dedicates her time to help veteran and son
VOLUNTEER ‘Aunt Sam’ gives love, assists one family in need
BY JOHNNY JOHNSON
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Published: November 9, 2008
Claudine Vails, an Oklahoma City police records clerk, has a special place in her heart for veterans.
At 73, she’s had family and friends in every war she can remember, including a best friend who lost both legs in Vietnam. She makes it a point to thank any uniformed soldier she sees. Some of those who know her best refer to her as "Aunt Sam.” So when Vails read an article in The Oklahoman about Alvin Law, a local Vietnam vet who was struggling to raise a 5-year-old son in a barren Section 8 apartment, she knew she had to help. Vails recruited some volunteers from the police department and collected furniture so the boy wouldn’t have to sleep on a bedroll on the floor. "He (Law) told me the sofa they had was one he drug in from the curb where someone else had dumped it to be thrown away,” Vails said. "So when I called him and said we had found a sofa, he said the other one was going straight back to the curb.” Within two weeks, Vails and her volunteers had found a bed, dressers, cabinets, a sofa and a table. Law said he can’t describe what Vails’ work means to him. "It means everything,” he said. "When you have nothing, and then all of a sudden you are blessed with all this, it’s just overwhelming.”
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