Hi everyone,

I'm an adjunct college instructor and I make about $22K a year and rely on my car to fly across the freeway to my jobs.

On September 23rd my right passenger side mirror was smashed in.

In addition to the damage to the car, some pieces from a 50+ year old family dish set were stolen that beyond it's sentimental value as an heirloom, as a complete set has a large resale value. Most importantly, a leather jacket was stolen that I consider irreplaceable.

I've had the jacket for over 15 years, it's been with me through some of the most important moments and times of my life. I wore it organizing workers to strike, in county jail for civil disobedience, in the first classes I taught, in the desert and in the mountains and with friends, it's warmed my loved ones when they needed it and allowed me to sleep when I've had to find rest outdoors or in my car. It's provided comfort sleeping on the floors of union halls and faculty officers. It's perhaps the only item that I own that would have truly outlived me and held something of my story, that somebody else could have carried forward after I'm gone. Most property that I own is cheap and temporary, and nothing that I own has been part of me - contains as much of my own blood, sweat, and tears - as that jacket.

It was a Wilson's leather jacket bought by my father as a special gift as part of a larger story. My grandfather's WW2 flight jacket was to be left to me after the death of my grandmother, but it disappeared before it could be handed down. For as long as I can remember, I felt honored to be future holder of that item and that part of my family's story. My grandmother would take it out and show it to me periodically. I loved her and my grandfather dearly. Years later, my dad bought me my own jacket which invoked that memory and responded to that loss. For me, this became something like my war jacket - during my time organizing I wore it into situations facing lines of police, with guns pointed at me, standing shoulder to shoulder with friends and comrades.

I do not have children, but if I ever did, it's something I imagined that I own that could have been passed down to them and their children that tells part of the story of my life. Or something that a friend or partner might retain after my death.

I feel a little self-conscious about how much the loss of the jacket hurts, but it does. I somehow hope to see or find it again. The model is no longer manufactured. I have missing teeth but doing something about this jacket feels more critical to me.

I would like to try and replace it with another high quality leather jacket that may similarly outlive me, and perhaps impart into a new jacket the loss of the old and the power of the love of people around me helping to replace it as part of a new story. I don't know if that will really heal the sense of loss, but it sounds nice.

Cost breakdown:

Window repair - $350

Dishes - $150

Jacket - $200 to $400 depending on whether buying a new one or finding my old model online. Initial pricing suggests this is the range I'm operating in to get something of high value.

I have some money left over from a well paying teaching gig I just completed, but this money constitutes about 40% of my yearly income and its presence in my bank account allows me to stretch and live with a modicum of comfort for a couple months of the year. It's the difference between spending 9 months living on the razor's edge and having to count every penny, and having a couple months where if I am exhausted after work I can just pick up fast food, or if I want to see a movie every once in a while I can just do it. While I'm looking for other work that fits within my teaching schedule, the loss of this money represents the possibility that my life will just be the same grind that it almost always is until next summer's teaching gig. In this way, my ability to feel a temporary sense of financial relief was also stolen from me.

Any little bit helps.