Help Rachel get home and start again after Brexit

Did you know that oak trees don’t start dropping acorns until they’re around 50?

I’m 55 now, single, currently in France. I left the UK in the autumn of 2014 to work at the world’s largest women-only university in Saudi Arabia, where I ran the Academic English programme. I made sure to return to the UK in 2016 to vote Remain in the EU referendum. We all know how that turned out.

In 2019, I left working for others to finally follow my bliss: to write and illustrate the dozens of inspirations I’d received and noted down over many years. It went well at first: I finished a crime novel, illustrated a guide to creative productivity, and helped other late bloomers to finally bring their dreams to life too. I did house- and pet-sitting full-time all over Europe and found freelance writing work sometimes, which kept costs down and helped stretch my savings. I lived simply, learned to get out of my own way at last, gradually developed a daily creative routine.

Then came 2020. It started with my Dad dying in the UK, followed by my Mum in Canada 18 days later. Aside from anything else, these unexpected losses rather cleaned me out. My sole inheritance has been family photos. Then the pandemic really kicked in. Freelance work dried up. Housesits became scarce, but the universe -and, for a few emergency weeks, dear friends-kept me housed. I created collages daily through grief and lone lockdowns, a mental health lifeline, and, through the kindness of friends and lovely Twitter people, unexpectedly found some support for them. Times were very lean, but day by day I was able to carry on. As I wasn’t able to access any government support from my home country, the odd sale and a kind grant from the Society of Authors kept the wolf from the door, until now.

But now there’s also Brexit. I can no longer sit all over Europe, due to the Schengen rules about 90 day stays. I can’t get French residency, as housesitting means no bills are in my name. No matter what, I must return to the UK, where I haven’t lived for 7 years and have no home or job. The sudden extension of lockdown there means housesits are thin on the ground. After so long away, I no longer have a credit score, and am entitled to no state support. Arriving from France, I must invest in expensive Covid tests, and quarantine somewhere for 10 days. I don’t have a deposit, let alone rent. Brexit and Covid have become a perfect storm for me.

Things are looking up a bit on the work front, and a few months from now I may have enough education, writing, and editing work to help me get established in the UK. But I need your help to get me to there and get me through the summer safely. Everyone kind enough to help this Brexile will get a custom collage and free ebooks, if you want them. I’ve never asked for charity before and I can’t say I’m comfortable with it. At all. But there are 2 things which got me through 2020 with my sanity intact and clothes on my back: art, and kindness. I need them both once more.

Fvck Brexit. And thank you. So very much.