I've lived here all my life and really can't imagine living anywhere else.
My stats are typical/boring - white female, divorced, (married twice), Christian, (Praise Jesus!), soon-to-be 58 years old, (next month in late December 2014), high school grad, (some college), trade school grad, (Culinary Arts), mother of five, grandmother of 3 and I had my gall bladder removed this past summer.
Yeah, pretty mundane stuff.
I was raised upper middle class and only have one sibling, a brother, 5 years older than me. Both my parents worked and we lived a good and decent life. It was not lavish by any means but we never went without. My parents were on the older side, my mother was 35 when I was born and my father, 40. They are both passed on now and I'm currently estranged from my brother, (severe falling out after the death of my mother regarding financial issues). Yes, quite typical.
Anyway, he retired from Boeing and lives a financially secure life in Arizona. We don't talk.
I was raised without religion and although my parents claimed to believe in God they rarely mentioned His name nor ever acknowledged His existence, (except to celebrate Christmas). I came close to God on my own as an adult. And I'm just going to state this once here, I have a relationship with God, NOT some man-made religion.
The reason I'm listing off all these tired facts about myself is to give you an idea of what this particular homeless woman is all about. I'm not an alcoholic or a drug addict. As a matter of fact I made a conscience choice to put drunkenness and the, "Forget about everything, let's get high!" attitude OUT of my life as I was faced with raising four children on my own and felt they deserved a clean and sober parent to look up to.
Period.
Guess the main thing I'm guilty of is (very), bad financial planning.
But it's not a case of me not having a job, I've had plenty and as a single parent I worked TWO jobs a lot of times just to keep food on the table and afford new shoes for my kids. I received NO child support.
Well, guess too, you could say I'm guilty of having miserable judgement in men, (and I'll just leave it at that.)
But by the time I hooked up with my second husband I was a lot more wiser and we had a successful marriage for 15 years, (and one son together). He was, (and still is), a real stand-up guy and a wonderful, dedicated father/dad to my other four children. The marriage ended in divorce, which I won't go into all the details but will add our parting-of-ways was amicable.
He has since re-married and has another child with his current wife.
I've remained single and haven't been with anyone since my divorce, (8 years ago), nor am I interested in being with anyone. I have enough problems to deal with now, that last thing I need are all the annoying upsets that come with hooking up with some man, (sorry, but that's how I see it).
Obviously you can tell by my attitude that "dating" would mean guaranteed folly and disaster for both involved if I delved off down that rocky road.
I've never been in trouble with the law.
I'm a law-abiding citizen of this state of Washington and I've always voted and paid my fair share of taxes over the years.
This is why I am so disgusted at how this state treats their elderly, their blind and their disabled. I was recently deemed disabled by state appointed doctors of this state and they will only help me out with $120 a month while I wait to see if I can get social security, (which could easily take up to 2 years).
I know this to be true as this is my second round applying.
This program is called ABD, (Aged, Blind and Disabled).
Now, compare that amount to the $99 a DAY this state is willing to shell out towards the comfort and care of prison inmates, (such as murderers, child killers and other low-life criminals), and then tell me how fair this is.
It's clean and sober, law-abiding folks like me that worked hard all their lives, paying taxes and doing what was right, just and respectful in this state that for whatever reason, find themselves over 55 years old without a big, fat bank account or retirement fund somewhere that end up with these cruel and crappy benefits like this. Which in turn, causes them to loose their homes/housing and end up on the streets. We're falling thru the cracks and nobody gives a care.
I didn't just get out of prison and I didn't just cross over the border!
I lived an honorable life in this state and did what was asked and expected of me.
And now the state itself deems me disabled and unable to work but will only help me out with $120 a MONTH while they dole out $99 a DAY on a person that's killed, robbed, beaten and raped other human beings.
Well, I tell you, I'm feeling RAPED myself, (by my own home state), right now and I don't care who knows it! THIS is why I will have to live in my car.
$120 doesn't enable me to rent anything! It's help like this that perpetuates homelessness! And the people out there that care have their hands tied to do anything about it and the people who could do something about it just don't care!!
There's all kind of aimless talk and idle chatter happening now about how society can help the homeless. Well, why don't we start with helping people like me NOT end up homeless in the first place?!!
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