I was not suicidal in the way that most people would have thought when I told my GEICO claims adjuster that he destroyed me… that my life was over. This was over an accident I didn’t even cause that left me and my little family, my elderly father, and our pet bunnies, homeless because we were full-time RVers. While our house on wheels was grounded at an RV repair shop, I scrambled to shelter us and GoFundMe saved us.

Four years later, I am still struggling to pick up the pieces of my life. I completed fourteen years of service caring for my father when he passed away in the spring of 2023, four years after my mother. I was drowning in grief, debt, and isolation in a city unfamiliar to me and a society cultured so differently from the one I had left behind in Hawai’i.

I found relationships incredibly difficult with most people transacting with me only if I had something to give them that they wanted. Unlucky me. They neither wanted nor needed what I truly had to offer! Men chased after that thing. Women conditionally accepted me but withdrew their favor when things went south for me. Genuine moments of connection punctuated an unraveled hemline of the fabric of my life with stitches missing in huge segments.

My market value was steadily declining as my years of self-employment as a private practicing acupuncturist and caregiver meant nothing to the employers interested in areas of knowledge and experience I didn’t have. I didn’t like the withered, dull, old woman in the mirror looking at me. A relic betraying the bright and energetic lady I used to be.

Then, in a crueler twist of fate, I moved out of LA County to escape the chaos but found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time. In October of 2025, my SUV was broadsided by a careless driver. But, this time it was totaled. The police, witnesses, and driver of the other vehicle made sure that I wouldn’t be able to clear my name and driving record—at least not without a lot of money and a long, drawn-out legal battle. Even after the insurance payout, I was upside-down on my loan by several thousand dollars. Countless jobs I actually stood a chance at getting just blew past me because I didn’t have reliable transportation. Getting to those rare, in-person interviews involved costly rental cars or epic public transportation routes.

Thank you for staying with me through my sob story. I promise you it’s worth the chapter that I am now writing. I’m poised to direct my energy purposefully towards the field of elder care. I lucked upon a mentor and a scholarship to obtain a certificate in RCFE (residential care facility for the elderly) administration. This means that with enough professional experience under my belt, I can someday open my own RCFE. My experience as a caregiver earned me conditional employment with a company based in San Diego. One with Hawaiian and Japanese cultural influences! I was just approved for a lovely rental in the area and I’m now dealing with the logistics of a permanent move between two counties.

But, wait it can get even better! I have been sitting on two income-earning assets for a while now, partly due to my inexperience and mostly due to the absence of a reliable business partner. So, I’ve decided to go solo and learn some hard skills and tough businesswoman sense myself. I’m raising a small amount of capital to get my vehicles on the road again. My solid diesel-pushing RV and my handy car-hauling trailer.

My San Diego life is already sketched out in my mind but with your support it will take shape and form!