Some people have planners, others have iPhones. Donna Herndon has what she calls “the original palm pilot.”
Her daily to-do list is neatly printed in blue ink on her weathered palms first thing in the morning and scrubbed off at the end of the day when she “washes her hands of her responsibilities.”
The hands that organize her days are the same ones that fold daily in prayer for the sick, care for the poor, dry the tears of the hopeless and leave people feeling like they’ve truly been touched by an angel.
“Some people collect cats, some people collect dogs,” said Donna’s husband, C.W. “Woody” Herndon. “My wife, she collects people.”
Donna Herndon, 67, has a soft heart and can’t turn away anyone in need, she said. She is a longtime volunteer and community leader in a variety of positions with one common denominator — she’s always in a position to help others.
Donna said she helped lower the juvenile-arrest rate in Murray by 75 percent in the 1970s. Now she helps felons get back on their feet after serving their sentences. She is responsible for Kentucky Homeplace Program funding that helps people gain access to medical services.
Angels are a theme in Donna’s life. She founded Angels Attic, a thrift store that funds Angels Clinic, a community health-care center for people without insurance. Recently she helped a woman, abandoned and abused by her husband, straighten up her life and find her way back home to her family in Maryland.
“Donna has truly been an angel to this community, said friend Le Ann Boone, who goes for walks with Herndon in the mornings. “They just don’t make people like her anymore.”
As she walked down the dimly-lit streets of her neighborhood, Herndon made use of the one hour of her day she spends on just herself — chatting with Boone before dawn’s light flickered through the trees, highlighting the world that she will soon rush to rescue.
As she bid her friend farewell and turned to make her way home, a streetlight illuminated her tightly wound bun. A halo of light fell on her head, and she smiled.
She said she is constantly amazed at the power of God and the seemingly unmanageable things he has made possible through her life.
“I don’t see things as impossible,” Donna said, laughing. ” I just see things as challenges.”
