MamaHut 2023 - Help us make Mom's dream a reality

Hi, my name is Melissa, I am fundraising to help my brother meet his goal to build and furnish a house for our 76 year old mother who currently lives alone in a senior housing apartment in Burien, Washington. To get to where we are today is in and of itself a miracle, and I could not fully share our story without speaking to the blessings that paved the road to the ask I make today.

The Story:

First, our mom. Her spirit is bountiful with love and resilience. Like most single mothers, her children have always been her beacon. Like most children we grew up without understanding the depth and determination of her love, but today we sit in awe of it. It's true, it's not until you've grown that you fully realize the decisions that shape our experiences also happen to your loved ones, and we are both lucky this lifetime we would have the support of a mom like ours.

You might say we were overachievers in testing her love for us. We were born with free spirits that rarely detoured to Easy Street, and generally learned things the hard way. This was especially hard for my mom to understand our fate in this regard, as she has lived within the lines and constraints of society.

She believes it takes a village, as proven by her opening our modest home while I was in high school to my best friend whose parents had kicked her out of their house her junior year. She raised her as her own for three years. Her only thought on the matter, she saw a need and filled it and shares in my friend's success. She is grateful my friend made amens with her family and studied to become a school teacher and positively impacts the lives of the many children she's taught over the years in her classroom.

Around that same time my own crisis, a teen pregnancy. While this came to be understood by my loved ones, my mom learns through court proceedings and trying to dissolve parental rights of the father, that I was in an abusive relationship. Her daughter is diagnosed with battered women syndrome at 17 years old. She never wavered and made it her mantra "Be true to you" which took me many years to understand the power of that statement. It is the village once again, in the form of family that raises a child to know they have unconditional loved - and allows me the grace to rebuild and rediscover my own personal worth and positive self image.

My brother isn't without his own struggle that would also lean in onto our mother's love, as we learn about his addiction to meth - something he will overcome that so many with loved ones do not. It is mom's love and true vision of him throughout this time that plays a major part in his recovery. Today he is many things to many people and is living a full, blessed life... but the most important role for him is son. She has always held true to her love for both of us and never shied from reminding us of our strengths and never tried to shame or belittle. She has always said she believes that we both carry gifts within us that can help others overcome struggles and doubt in their own lives.

My brother and I moved to Washington, where he now celebrates 13 years of sobriety and I welcome a child into a healthy marriage and environment. In 2013, we were able to move her to Washington from Northern California. This feat taught us even in good times, we can be tested - and spirit guides are with you in good times and in bad. Before crossing the California border into Oregon mom pulled over and my brother would find himself on the side of the road holding mom in his arms screaming for help because she was not breathing. A women, an angel really, would hear his screams and run to the highway to deliver CPR until the EMT's arrived. She would take in my mom's cat for the night and would drive the U-Haul with mom's belongings to her ranch for safe keeping while mom recovered in the hospital.

This event served as our wake up call, to imagine a world without her in it and to understand it is now our turn to care for her and to honor her visions of her children to make the life she lived a legacy in love.

In her honor, we share our experiences with our community in hopes of supporting the less fortunate and the most determined. I serve on the board of a non profit and we work to advocate for students with disabilities in Washington State. We are determined to end restraint and isolation in Washington schools and advocate for our state's legislature to pass a law banning it and to fully fund special education. I also tutor 3rd graders in reading at a local elementary school because reading is learning, and reading makes people able to have social mobility in our community. My brother has remained sober and in turn sponsors addicts in the 12 step program so they might also recover and make good on their own gifts to their community, or their family, or themselves.

Since moving to Washington, she has made her famous carrot cake for every birthday, she has always picked up the phone knowing full well it might be one of our shitshows on the other end, she has delighted many kids serving as the lunch lady for my son's elementary school, and she showed a second generation love and resolve in their capability by teaching my son to read when most of his teachers were so quick to set low expectations of him due to disability.

She has lived a modest and honorable life. We just don't want her to live it alone anymore in a tiny senior housing apartment complex. Which brings us to today, and to this Go Fund Me.

The Dream: MamaHut 2023

The Ask:

With today's economy and uncertainty... we find that we need help with purchasing appliances for the house (microwave, stove, fridge, dishwasher and washer/dryer). We are asking for help to cross the finish line. This would help us be able to get her settled in her new home quicker than we would be able to otherwise. We are shooting for starting the new year in her new home and giving her twenty day notice to SHAG (Sustainable Living or Ageless Generations) that she is moving out after the holidays.

My brother has given his all and is so close to honoring his soul contract in giving mom a place of her own to live make memories with her grandson and children and family. A place that honors her for being our beacon, as she once held us as her own.

So many friends of my brother's have contributed their skills and time and care to making this a reality and I want to make sure they understand how grateful we are and say thank you to all of them here. I can't give money to help with this goal, but I am able to share the story of this remarkable woman... and my awesome brother.. and sharing in hopes that she might sit and revel in the love and in the community that she so fiercely believes in, and her belief that humans are good and that most are good humans.

in partnership and in love,

Mel.