Sandra Campbell: Helpful Was Her
Only Gear
Early
on the morning of Sept. 11, Corey Wilson took the phone
when he heard that Sandra Campbell was calling from work.
The 5-year-old wanted his godmother to know how much he
liked the book bag she bought him for school. The
response so pleased her, she told the boy's mother, "I'm
going to buy him two more."
Helping those around her was "just Sandra," said
Gladys Anderson, one of Ms. Campbell's aunts.
Though Ms. Campbell, 45, made a good living working
for Cantor Fitzgerald as a computer programmer, she was
one of those people who didn't go on vacations and made
do with last year's coat. Whatever she had went to
friends and her daughter, Ebony, who had just begun
sophomore year at the University of Hartford.
Ms. Campbell's mother, Lendora Kearse, received $150
every month from her daughter for blood-pressure
medication.
In Fort Greene, Brooklyn, where Ms. Campbell lived,
her car was at everyone's service. "If I told her someone
was in the hospital, she went," said Jacksie Smith, a
friend. "The people didn't even know her, and by the time
she walked out the door, they knew her."
One Saturday a month was "Aunts' Day," when she
treated her aunts to a day of errands and shopping. Once
Ms. Anderson casually mentioned that she needed something
for the house. Ms. Campbell appeared soon afterward. She
had found a Home Depot in the Bronx that was open till
midnight. Ms. Campbell had scheduled another "Aunts' Day"
for the Saturday after Sept. 11.
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