Road to Independence

In this world we must all choose between what charities we can give to, and there are many people in need, and many organizations to give to.  GoFundMe has allowed us to help people at the individual level asking all of us to give more, with the same finite resources.  Helping my friend Victoria is important to me, and it’s only fair to tell you why and I hope that it will also matter to you as well.

I first met Victoria through blogging.  She has a site where she talks a lot about how the brain works, and how beliefs form, and how different parts of the brain impact our behavior.  I remember being struck by not only the quality of her writing but how in depth her research was.  This has been a strong interest of mine for some years and I learned a lot from reading her blog.  As I got into conversations, I came to know her much better.  There were many things that we shared, and I daresay that within a year’s time she became as close a person to me as any in my life.

One of the things that surprised me most about her was that she has no formal college degree.  She is brilliant, and definitive proof that college isn’t necessary for intelligence.  Unfortunately, it does make a difference in the job world, especially after the great recession.  I don’t know if her life is full of more tragedies than others, but she’s had her share.   Just to give you a quick overview of her life she left home to work for the FBI at 19 in Washington, D.C., fell in love, got married, and shortly after the birth of her daughter, her husband tragically committed suicide due to complications from a traumatic brain injury.  

She lived life as a single mother, relocating to a deeply religious sect in the South to be closer to her parents who had been transferred there by the military. The trauma of her loss made her vulnerable to relentless proselytizing by evangelicals. The hypocrisy in the community that surrounded her eventually caused her to leave, but the loss of deep belief was a difficult time.  She owned a successful business for a while, only to lose it because of identity theft from a man she placed her trust in.  Complications from a back injury and surgery limit her ability to work and she is currently on disability.   

Despite the many trials she has faced in her life, she has faced them with courage and is an emotionally healthy person.  In fact, in some ways, she feels freer than at any time in her life.   However, like many people in this country, she is stuck in a cycle of poverty that she cannot get out of.  She is 60 years old and currently living with her elderly parents out of necessity.  It is made more difficult by her age, health issues, and lack of degrees that she cannot find a living wage job to give her some independence. 

Victoria has spent time with me and my family and she is a truly wonderful and beautiful soul and I want to help her.  She is a proud woman and to get to a point where she would let me help her in this way was a long journey.  All she would like to do is have a place of her own and have a vehicle, which as you know is so important to getting many jobs.  Especially since she doesn’t live in a large urban area with mass transportation.  Getting a reliable vehicle is the hard part, and so I’d like to do the best I can in raising about $5000 dollars to help her purchase a used vehicle that can help give her the momentum she needs to make the best of her remaining years.  She is full of life and I would love to see her flourish as much as she can.

Thank you so much for your consideration.  Whatever you can afford to give would be greatly appreciated.