Love and Support for Selila

This is a call for support for my funny, smart, caring, hardworking, and tough-as-hell friend Selila.

You know those times in your life when things fall apart and you need your community to come through for you? Selila is going through one of those emergency times now.

During the pandemic, her teaching job got downsized. She is disabled, and has been dealing with the kinds of long-term medical conditions that could dishearten anyone, but now she’s lost her income and medical insurance. There is zero family support system in her life, only lots of friends who love her but weren't aware of how bad things had gotten. That's who she is; she does her best to keep her problems to herself and handle the situation on her own. 

 

More than anything, Selila wants to work, to take care of herself. I have never seen anyone try so hard to find another job, especially someone with her kind of strong resume and excellent job history. She'd gladly work as a waitress, work in a factory, anything, but she can't physically do those things. Due to severe neuropathy from chemo, she needs leg braces and two canes or a walker to get around, which drastically constrains her mobility. 

Every week she sends out dozens of job applications to anything available, but nobody is hiring her. She can work just fine from home -- but when other candidates have applied with equivalent qualifications and the ability to walk, somehow they are always "a better fit." 

She's hustled up a variety of freelance tutoring and writing work, but it barely makes her enough to eat. She can't afford to see a doctor, and she's about to be evicted from her home. Her dog and cat mean everything to her, but you cannot bring animals to a homeless shelter. 

What do you do when you've got nowhere to go? 

This messed-up world can leave you out in the cold if you are disabled but there it is: a good person got hit with a lot of bad luck, and fell through the cracks. If we can chip in enough for her to live on while she finds a way through this and on to a new chapter of her life, she'll do it. She's just trying to survive.

About Selila:

I've known Selila for over twenty years now, and seen her through good times and bad. She tends to be shy at first, but as soon as you get to know her you learn how fun and awesome she is, and her friends love her dearly. Selila lives in a small basement place in Washington, D.C. with her dog and cat, and she's made that space a cozy home for the past two decades. Getting by in the city on an art teacher's salary has been tight, but she's been devoted to that job and to her students, and she's made it work. She has always managed to take care of herself and her beloved animals, to keep forging ahead and going strong no matter what obstacles she's faced down. 

And over the last few years alone, she's had serious obstacles thrown her way, with half a dozen operations for cancer and increasingly difficult physical challenges. But I've seen her pull herself together shortly after those massive debilitating operations and get right back to work, again and again, because her work ethic is phenomenal and she is dedicated to her students. She never wants pity, never wants to ask for help. 

I’m here asking for her, because she needs us. As tough as she is, as strong as she’s always been, this is something she can’t go through alone.

How we can help:

Selila needs a break, she needs to rest and heal, she needs enough of a financial safety net to give her a chance to find a way forward.

She’s going to leave DC and come stay with us for a little while, just to have some breathing space where she can regroup, recalibrate, figure out what comes next, without the constant threat of homelessness hanging over her head. We've got a good guest room, but it's only a temporary housing solution. 

So what I'm asking for is a crowdfund to help Selila cover moving expenses, as she packs up her whole adult life. She needs to get a storage unit, so she won't have to lose absolutely everything. She needs to pay her utility bills to keep the lights on through November. She will need money to put down for rent once she finds someplace else to live. And it would be good if she were able to cover a few living expenses like food and medicine for her and her animals. With all the painful challenges she's facing, having the security of some cash in the bank can make all the difference to help life seem possible again.

I know times are rough for most everyone right now, but if we all chip in together, we can keep her afloat until she's able to rally and do it on her own. We have to take care of each other.

For anything you can do to help, thank you.