Happy Holidays, my name is Sherry. I'm an End of Life Doula and offer my services to our unhoused friends and neighbors in Memphis, Tennessee. This week I sat with a friend as her heart relinquished her soul. My request is URGENT.

7 years ago a young person anxiously rang my doorbell. She and her friend needed a place to stay while they tried to regroup or end up homeless. Two days turned into two weeks and Mariah proved to be a hilarious house guest. We watched movies and listened to The Beatles and Elton John. Unfortunately, she and her friend didn't find housing. Taking them to First Congo, equipped to sleep outside on the church's porch, was my first experience seeing how others live. It was heartbreaking. Mariah and her friend were gracious for our efforts but we knew people deserve better.

Over the years I helped Mariah when she'd get in touch. The last two years we saw each other often. I am grateful for that time now but wish I had appreciated it in the moment.

Mariah was a prolific writer and would fill journal after journal with her thoughts, poems and songs. Her poems were outstanding. The kind you read and sit with the words as they touch your soul. You probably saw her once or twice at the coffee shops in Cooper-Young that allowed her shelter during the day- for a time- writing in her journal as she listened to music and sipped coffee, if she had the money.

Mariah was quirky, smart, thankful and kind. Behind the fun she was also struggling. The streets were hard on her. She had diabetes but no care. She had mental health issues but not therapist. She had other health issues but slept under a juice bar during ice storms that middle class Memphians go to and never consider it's someone's shelter. She needed food regularly but that's hard in a city with compassion fatigue.

Mariah developed an infection. She carried on with few complaints. Just something else she'd need to deal with as the world went on around her. But then it all changed.

The infection spread until she became weak and sought out the ER. There her vitals weren't enough to sustain her and she had to be revived. She was a fighter. However, after days on life support Mariah's body couldn't fight as hard as her soul wished. The streets had claimed another life. A young person this time. A life not yet fully lived.

Mariah had recently found her birth mom and a whole gaggle of loving and excited sisters. She didn't get to return to them in the short time she had

but we are trying to find a way for her to be with them at last.

Mariah, and every soul, deserves more than a paupers burial. She deserves to be home. Her journey is not yet complete.

Can you please help us raise the money for Mariah's remains to be cremated before the state takes her from us and her family for a second time?

It needn't be much. The cost of a journal, a pen, or a cup of coffee. All things she loved in life.

Please join us in walking Mariah home.

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