Gilda Oliveira

My mom is a mother, grandmother of four and great-grandmother of five, a caregiver, a devoted member of her church, and someone whose instinct has always been to put everyone else before herself. Growing up, I watched her work incredibly hard, often juggling three jobs at a time, to provide for our family and make sure we had what we needed. Later, she became a caregiver for the elderly, and anyone who knows my mom knows that caregiving was never simply a job to her. She formed incredibly deep bonds with the people she cared for and their families. Even now, at 81, she still works part-time at a daycare center, where she has formed those same special bonds with the children she cares for. Staying active, working and being able to take care of herself mean everything to her. She also continues to be there for my 90-year-old dad. He is thankfully still pretty self-sufficient, but they have been best friends for more than half a century. They came to this country in 1969, built their lives here and eventually became U.S. citizens. Through every chapter of their lives, they have continued looking out for one another. Unfortunately, the past few months have brought more than my mom should have to carry at once. This summer, she paid for major work on her home. After a storm, much of that work failed and she was forced to hire another contractor to correct the damage and poor work done by original contractor who also cant get a hold of to try to get any funds back. Between the original work and having it repaired, she has been left approximately $21,000 in debt. The financial and emotional stress of everything had already taken an enormous toll on her. Then, on September 9, she was involved in a serious three-car accident that totaled her car. Since the accident, she has had multiple hospital visits and extensive testing. Thankfully, her brain scans were clear, but she is now dealing with significant back issues and difficulty walking and will need physical therapy. At this point, we don't know when she will be able to return to the daycare. And now she has no car. For my mom, losing her car means much more than losing a vehicle. It means losing a piece of the independence she has worked her entire life to maintain. Her car allowed her to get herself to work, church, appointments, errands and simply live her everyday life without having to depend on someone else. My brother and I are doing everything within our ability to help her. We're helping with transportation, appointments, hospital and insurance matters, paperwork and figuring out what comes next. We're also helping financially as much as we can. But between the home-repair debt, losing her car, being unable to work right now and the uncertainty surrounding her recovery, this has become bigger than what the two of us can financially fix for her on our own. And that's incredibly difficult for us to admit, because all we want to do is make this better for our mom. So I'm doing something she would probably never do for herself: I'm asking for help. Funds raised will help relieve some of the overwhelming debt from having her home repaired twice, help with everyday expenses while she is unable to work, provide transportation to appointments and physical therapy, and eventually help her regain some of the stability and independence that disappeared almost overnight. If you're able to donate, no amount is too small. If you're not in a position to donate, sharing her story with your family, friends, church or community would mean just as much to us. My mom has spent a lifetime showing up for her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, the elderly people she cared for, the children she cares for today, her church, her friends and her family. After a lifetime of watching our mom take care of everyone else, my brother and I just want her to know that it's okay to let people take care of her now. ❤️