We juggle daily a variety of challenges that come our way… from trying to get a six year old dressed,hair brushed and to school on time, traffic, paying the bills, cooking a decent healthy meal, supporting a teenagers first step into college, doing piles of laundry, a flat tire, a forgotten lunch but these are nothing in comparison.

Last year I was overwhelmed by the number of people that would come up to me after making a presentation at a company, telling a recipients story, to tell me that they too were a United Way success story. Support with food boxes, utility support and job skills training are programs are a few examples. One day, after I finished with a presentation and was almost to my car a woman tapped me on the shoulder, she was crying, and I realized that she was 1 of 15 employees I had just spoken to. She told me that we had saved her life.

She went on to tell me that she had been in a very abusive marriage and that the abuse had begun 4 years prior, almost immediately after her son was born. She said it was very slow at first, comments about her weight, her looks, but that slowly it became more physical and much more violent. She said it was unbearable. But she stayed in the marriage for two reasons; she had no place to go, no money and no friends or family to turn to, and she felt that staying in the home was a safer place for her son; he had food to eat, clothes to wear and a roof over his head. Leaving would mean homelessness. But she told me that this reality changed for her quite drastically two years ago when the abuse that she had been receiving shifted towards her son. She said she’d thrown herself into the middle and experienced, what she called, “The worst of the worst.”

The next morning, after spending the night on the floor of her sons room and after hearing the front door and knowing that her husband had gone to work, she gathered up as much as she could carry, picked up her son and walked out the door. She had no place to go so she rode around on the bus for awhile. When they finally got off, they walked into a large department variety store and were wandering the aisles when an employee walked up to her and asked if she needed help. She declined, because she was humiliated, but the employee offered the store payphone to use, in case the woman needed to call anyone. She had no one to call but walked to the phone anyway, hoping that it would be down a hallway where no one would see her and her son. Five minutes later the same employee walked back to where the payphone was and helped her call an organization that was able to provide emergency shelter for her and her son. This organization connected her to another, that was able to provide counseling, and another that was able to provide a job skills training program, and another.. that helped her find affordable housing. Today, she said, I have a great job, my own apartment, I pay the rent and my son is 6 years old and just started kindergarten. Most importantly, we are a family.

Then she said “Thank you. I wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for you.”

I certainly don’t do the real work that helped this woman and her son, I advocate for the needs of the community… but this, was the best thank you I have ever recieved.

I always encourage my younger family members to follow their dreams.