Help! My mum has no home!

Help! My mum is homeless.

When I was young, I remember arriving home after school one day hungry and looking for food to eat. The fridge and pantry was almost empty but I did find a can of Watties tomato sauce. I poured a dollop onto a plate and licked it off. That would have to do until Mum was home and hopefully she had some food my sister and I could eat. 
We grew up in Wellington New Zealand.

“Help yourself” was a typical phrase we would hear when dinner was served.

Mum has endured a troubled life well before my sister and I entered her world. In 1985, my sister was born followed by myself 2 years later. Divorcing my dad due to family violence, Mum raised my sister and I as best a financially strangled, solo mother with a world of personal problems possibly could. At the age of 21, Mum was not ready for kids of her own.

Mum found it difficult to meet the basic needs of raising two children, she could barely look after herself. My dad played his role but we lived with mum and under her roof for the better part of 18 years before the drama forced me out of home. My sister left a few years earlier to start a family of her own. She was just 15.

In 1994 and at the age of 7, I expressed a vague interest in learning to play the violin. Mum did everything she could to make it happen.
A few weeks later mum would surprise me with a full-sized violin and an introuction with who would become a lifelong friendship and also my violin teacher. An elderly white woman who had her shit together. A house, a husband, stability and peace. Either knowingly or not, she became the role model I needed.
I took it for granted at the time, but I had no idea how lucky I was to have this opportunity gifted to me. It wasn’t until many years later, I would find documents mum had kept in an ageing shoebox. These documents were letters she wrote and received from potential sponsors who would help finance my violin tuitions.
Mum later revealed she had agreed to look after my violin tutors’ gardens to help alleviate the financial stress.

I played the violin for 10 years before deciding I no longer got enjoyment out of it. I had to let it go. I could tell Mum was upset. More than anything I could tell Mum simply wanted me to succeed. I thought I had it tough, Mum had it tougher. With little to no options of success for herself she sought a way to make my life better. I am forever grateful to her for that. She did all she could to help me and now she needs my help, and I need yours.

In short, my mum is homeless. Creeping up to 54 years of age, and working a minimum wage job picking apples she has no home to call her own.

So, what’s the plan?

Quite simply, Mum needs a roof over her head without the stress of working a minimum wage job just so she can sleep at night. Mum is surviving, but that is not good enough. She lives in New Zealand and nobody should be in a position where they are simply surviving. I want to afford Mum the freedom to live!

Mum is an old soul with a hippie heart so after discussing the issues and solutions, we have agreed we need to get her into a mobile home.
This will not only give her a roof over her head, but allow her freedom and independence. Something she has never had before.
She is currently a 7-hour drive away from immediate family.

This is a short term/long term plan which we hope we can achieve within the next 3 months. The long-term plan is to have a permanent home. This is something the family and I will work together on, over the next few years.

With the money raised, we plan on purchasing a reliable vehicle that is either ready to go with all the basic needs such as a bed, storage space, solar power etc. Or, we will purchase a vehicle and have it properly equipped so that it is suitable to live out of. Our inspiration comes from the good people at www.vanlife.com.au.

Any help offered is hugely appreciated and will at the very least, finally allow Mum to live her life how she so desires and so deserves.

Be nice to your Mum, you only get one.  

Examples of Van Life conversions below:

http://www.vanlife.com.au/vanlife-conversions-blog/2017/10/9/-for-carly-vw-t4-transporter-swb

http://www.vanlife.com.au/vanlife-conversions-blog/2018/3/20/vw-transporter-swb-lees-conversion