Life has a funny way of surprising us when we least expect it. One day I am picnicking with a double decker sandwich on the beach for mother’s day and the next, I am laying on the floor of a hotel room reaching in desperation with the last of my might to call 911.
Obviously I made it through that day and also the next time about a month later when the scene repeated itself back home. Three blood transfusions later I made it out of Stanford hospital but only to find out that a return was imminent to solve the root cause for my fainting. I was going to need surgery.
As if the battle with health was not enough, my job of a decade decided that they could not accommodate my illness and as they put it, “did not extend my contract.”
So here I was, a forty something teacher without the income I had for two decades and without the strength emotionally and physically to get through this on my own. I was used to the good fight as a single mom. In fact I didn’t mind working hard, finding ways around hardships – nothing a good cup of coffee couldn’t solve, right? But this time was different. This time, I didn’t have my most valuable asset, my health. I was not used to that nor was I used to (or liked) asking for help; but for the first time in my life, I truly needed it.
I was on the verge of losing my home and I was scared. I gathered what I could find to try to sell – odd gold earrings, a necklace , some clothes but this was just not enough to pay my rent- nowhere close. Rents in Palo Alto even for small homes are expensive.
So here I was weeks away from a surgery and wondering if I would have a home to come back to. Pure desperation drove me to scrounge the internet and with the last mental vigor I had in me, I found St. Vincent who led me to HIF.
In these modern times, can we still rely on our community at our darkest hour? I remember wondering as I gulped pride to make the calls.
It turns out life has a funny way of surprising us when we least expect it. The check for my rent was awarded through the grant while I was in my surgery. And in this most vulnerable moment of my life, I realized that our capacity to love one another as a society, as perfect strangers who share the same human fragility, is so powerful in all its gentleness.
There have been many times especially recently that have challenged my faith in humanity but this act of kindness from St. Vincent de Paul and HIF was a profound reminder that compassion is among us and I am reminded of that every time I turn my key to come home.
