Hey y’all 

It’s DeBrie, here ✌

Most of you remember me from our times hanging out and listening to music in the kitchens of the gay woods of Tennessee,  running around and meeting so many needs of our local and extended queer community.  A lot has shifted in the last year and for me personally- I have returned to San Diego and to my roots.  My Mom and Grandmother (you can call her Gran Gran, she said it’s okay ) are two elderly Black women who grew up in Arkansas as sharecroppers picking cotton. Working countless jobs from nursing to nannying, they raised children of their own and many many more who were in need of family and care. They both have fought racism, misogyny, and decades of inequality all their lives while extending generations of love, guidance and nourishment with every ounce of their souls. They are a living part of Black America that we don’t read about in the history books. They are the invisible Black women who worked to keep the wheels turning for others without being offered any protection for themselves. 


At 79 and 95, Mom and Gran Gran have been living together for the last 50 years in San Diego. Surrounded by a lifetime of memories and love, they have spent their lives designing a home to care for one another with the help of only one local family member. They were both hospitalized in the last week during the holidays and it’s been one of the most emotionally depleting and humbling things I’ve ever experienced. I wouldn’t call myself a religious person, but all I’ve wanted to do is fall to my knees some days. As of this weekend, their health is declining to an indeterminate point and the hospitals don’t have space for them. My heart forgets to work and I get paralyzed with fear every time I think of having both of them in a hospital during an evolving pandemic. 


Eunice, my sister, my girlfriend Matilda and I have been working with their doctors, home health nurses & physical therapists, social workers, and church to develop a care plan and resource enough home health aids and to provide 24 hour care.  We are building a team and a strategy to bring them home.


In order for Gran Gran and Mom to return home, everything necessary must be  in place for their wellness and safety. I’m seeking your support to update their house and provide around the clock elder care. 


We need:

1)To find and hire at least two other home health care aids. 148 hours/ week care at $20 hour- days nights = $2,960 a week - we are also looking for volunteers 
2)We also need to hire a plumber to make necessary repairs —$1000  
3) hot water heater, $80 in repairs 
4) refrigerator —$800  
5) eventually a new stove — $750
6) handymen — $2000
7) food — $500 per person
8) home health care supplies — $500 monthly 

We are  asking familial ties, community support from Mom and Gran Gran’s neighborhood and church, institutional home health care and medical doctors and physical therapists, local crowdfunding and support from our Tennessee queer community to provide holistic care and close the gap in care that would have left these Elders undervalued and uncared for. 


Your donation to this campaign will help shift resources to folks who have worked tirelessly their entire lives and still live with stressful uncertainty. Contributing to provide care for these two women is reparational, and contributes to the intergenerational strength that I have to call on right now to navigate through this. Responding to the deficit Black women experience in this world repairs all of our generational roots. 


Thank you so much for your support!