Christopher Durham posing with his life size cut out of Elvis Presley.

ENID, Okla. — Church members and leaders in a north-central Oklahoma community stepped up in a big way when one of their families was in need.

When Christopher Durham’s mother and longtime caregiver, Judy Durham, fell ill with COVID-19 at the beginning of January, members of the Cedar Ridge Wesleyan Church began caring for the 54-year-old Enid resident.

Pastor Ron Olson has been staying with Durham, who has Down syndrome, since Judy was hospitalized.

“Chris is at the center of this,” Olson said. ”I’ve laughed a lot. This guy has made me laugh. He enriches peoples’ lives, I think.”

An expert in oldies rock ‘n’ roll, Durham has a music room dedicated to Elvis Presley, the Beatles and the like, complete with a boombox and hundreds of CDs he has been collecting over 25 years.

“I love the Steelers, music and Jesus,” Durham said.

Durham listed some of his favorite Elvis Presley songs — like “Blue Hawaii” and “Girls, Girls, Girls” — while showing off his life-sized cut-out of Presley. Durham said he knows the day of Elvis’ death, down to the day of the week.

“He can do that with presidents, every relative, birds,” Olson said. “He has a gift there.”

Assessments are being made so Durham can have all the support he needs. He will transition to living with peers in a more permanent home. Olson said Durham is excited about being with his peers, whom he hasn’t been around since high school.

“We don’t know how this is going to unfold,” Olson said. “That’s another source of anxiety: the unknown. How, where, when will he go?”

Olson said when Judy died on Jan. 12, Durham’s family doctor, Dr. Tom Snyder, came to the house to give him the news. He said Snyder was a “real blessing” for the family.

“Most doctors can’t do that, but he has been a family friend for a long time,” he said.

Though Durham doesn’t have a lot of family in Enid, Olson said the church congregation embraced him at his mother’s funeral. Olson’s wife, assistant pastor Todd Ging, and other church members, have tried to help out as much as they could, too.

People with health circumstances at the church would have, as well, but Olson said he wanted to make sure the immunocompromised didn’t risk getting COVID after Judy was hospitalized.

“I think the church family would have done a lot more, if it wasn’t for those first 10 days of COVID,” Olson said. “They have been very supportive of me to do this.”

Frank Matthews, a member of Cedar Ridge, called the News & Eagle to brag about Olson, saying those who have helped have gone above and beyond.

“You do it just because it’s the right thing to do,” Matthews said. “I guess you could say the pastor did it because it’s his calling, but that’s not really it. It just was the right thing to do.”

Olson said he thinks the community needs to be more aware of those with special needs and of the people caring for them.

“I always knew that caregivers get exhausted, and now I have felt it,” Olson said. “We have to be really conscious of that, give people a break, help them. I’m very thankful for my wife, but not everybody has that. … We pray for people, but we need to step in and send them wherever for a break and recharge.”