Jimmy  Darts

SB Mowing

Pattie Gonia

Little Miss Flint

Kalina Silverman

Samuel Weidenhofer

Patriotic Kenny Foundation

Ben Saunders - Flawless Cleaning

The Dogist

Peter Bond

Amy Jandrisevits

Ask Uncle Jack

That Good News Girl

Tess Bohne

FowlMouthFarmer

Latonja and Taylor Richardson

Officer Richard Craig

Flavor Flav

John Wolfe

Khloe

<div>Detra has been working hard her whole life, but she hasn't always been paid for it. And living in New York isn't easy when you're on your own. Detra can manage the day-to-day, but she hasn't been able to tuck anything away for the golden years. She currently has $26,000 in credit card debt left over from the survival years. If you enjoyed her story and would like to help her breathe a little bit, please consider donating as we try to give her a little cushion!
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Let's Help Detra Breathe

It took a village to fulfill Grandma’s Promise. Bookmobiles cost hundreds of thousands per year to staff, supply, and maintain. And there were administrative complexities far beyond Grandma's means. But we searched high. We searched low. Then we struck upon a solution that has Grandma so excited she can’t sleep. Tony Hillery from Harlem Grown has offered to build free libraries, aptly named ‘Grandma’s Promise,’ in his urban farms across the city. These farms are safe spaces that serve thousands of the exact same children that Grandma dreamed of reaching with her bookmobile. Grandma will personally curate the collections with “books to represent the children that are going to have them: uplifting, positive stories of people who overcome obstacles and do great things.’


But take a seat.  It gets even better. Because Tony is currently building a Harlem Grown Mobile Teaching Kitchen that will spread the message of nutrition and healthy eating to children across all of Harlem. It will conduct community events and educational programs. It will also partner with food banks and pantries to distribute nutritious food to communities that currently lack these options. But now the MTK will also serve an additional purpose. At each stop, it will distribute books from the Grandma’s Promise collection. Grandma has decided 110% that the Mobile Teaching Kitchen was the ‘bookmobile’ she was seeing in her visions. She told me that a butterfly landed on her today. Twice. 

<img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/59289179_162919682788770_r." alt="" width="100%" media_type="3" />
 


 Here's where we come in. First we need to refill Grandma’s secret stash. Before Grandma can promise anything, we need to make sure she’s got some solid ground beneath her feet. Or more accurately—a solid brownstone beneath her feet. She’s got a loving community around her. But we also want a roof over her head. So the first $50,000 raised in this fundraiser will go to Grandma, just to give her a little breathing room. The remaining amount will go to Harlem Grown—for the purpose of building Grandma’s legacy.  Following the construction of her small system of free libraries, Grandma hopes to empower the Mobile Teaching Kitchen, so that she and Tony can reach all the children of Harlem. Even the ones who don’t live near the farms. In the words of Grandma:  “Many of these children are both physically and emotionally malnourished. Now we can help with both at the same time.”


In addition to building the Grandma's Promise libraries, all donations will go toward keeping the MTK staffed, supplied, and fueled for as many years as possible. So that it can reach as many children as possible. “I haven’t felt this way since the birth of my kids,” said Grandma. ‘This is the beginning of something. Something that will make everyone proud, even when I’m gone." Please consider chipping in for these two community pillars of the Harlem community, as they work together to fulfill Grandma's Promise.  <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/59289179_1629227213200174_r.jpeg" alt="59289179_1629227213200174_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" />

Let's Fulfill Grandma's Promise

Early this year, I was walking home from the gym on a particularly cold day. I was still dressed in my running clothes. And as I neared my home, I passed by a 76-year old woman dressed in a floor length faux mink coat. She was gripping tightly to a railing. ‘You look great,’ I told her.  Then she pointed at my own clothes— ‘Let me ask you a question,’ she said. ‘Why is it always white boys who wear shorts in the winter?’ And thus began my friendship with Stephanie. One of Stephanie's more endearing  traits is that she will launch into a wild story within seconds of meeting a person-- often before customary greetings are exchanged. And that's exactly what she did. She began telling me stories from the 1970's, when she worked as a burlesque dancer named Tanqueray. Her memory for detail was amazing, and she had a singular way of describing things. Stephanie will say the wildest things without a hint of self-consciousness. It really has a way of drawing you in. And after she'd been going for about five minutes, I interrupted for long enough to ask if I could run to my house and get my camera.   <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/51307760_1600541509357281_r.jpeg" alt="51307760_1600541509357281_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" /> The resulting interview went quite viral, as many of you will remember. And Stephanie had a lot of fun with it.  People were stopping her on the street all day long. And Stephanie loves an audience-- even if it’s just an audience of one. So anyone who stopped her for a selfie would leave ten minutes later with an earful of stories. And what stories they were.  Nobody has lived a life like Stephanie’s. The two of us agreed to meet regularly at a nearby diner, so I could get her whole story down on paper. We did about twenty interviews together. Our initial plan was to create a podcast. But after we'd gone quite a distance down that path, circumstances suddenly changed.  Stephanie has been in pain for as long as I've known her. When we first met she was walking with a cane. And every time we walked to the diner, she'd grip tightly to my arm. Even then-- it would take us fifteen minutes to travel half a block. She’d wince in pain whenever she was jostled or bumped. Occasionally she’d scream out. It was clear that something was seriously wrong with her leg. She attributed the injury to a bad fall that she'd suffered a few months earlier, but she seemed confident that she was on the mend. When the pandemic started, Stephanie and I continued our conversations over the phone. She would call me several times a day. And whenever I didn't answer, she'd always leave a voicemail—usually telling me some story she’d just remembered. Last month I grew concerned when a few days passed without hearing from her. I called a neighbor to check up on her, and he heard Stephanie's voice coming from the back bedroom. She'd taken a bad fall and had been on the floor for 72 hours without food or water. The EMTs broke down her door and took her to the hospital.  Ever since the fall, Stephanie has been unable to stand or walk. She is in a lot of pain. She's always been  a private person in many ways, but the current crisis has necessitated a candor about her situation. We’ve hired a team of professionals to make her apartment clean and comfortable. We’ve gotten her a 24-hour home health aide. She now has a physical therapist coming to the apartment multiple times a week.  And we're working on handling the back rent and eviction notices. Her health is not improving as quickly as we'd like, but Stephanie remains absolutely convinced that she is on the mend. Unfortunately her unorthodox lifestyle hasn't qualified her for social security. And she doesn’t currently have insurance. (Though we're trying to get her signed up for Medicare.) Her care is extremely expensive. So far I’ve been using funds from the HONY Patreon, but it’s not sustainable long term.    Stephanie and I have decided to scrap our idea of making a podcast. And I’ve spent the last few weeks retooling the story for publication on Humans of New York. Our plan is to raise funds for Stephanie’s care alongside the telling of her story. The ultimate goal is for Stephanie to live the rest of her life on her own terms. Maybe that means an assisted living facility. Maybe that means remaining in her apartment with the assistance of a home health aide. I’m not sure. But I want to provide her with enough resources so that it’s her decision, and not a decision forced upon her. But I’m not viewing this as charity. Stephanie brings a priceless resource to the table—her story. We're just going to tell that story using a new model.  Instead of selling advertising, or selling it to a publisher, we’re asking for voluntary contributions from anyone who’s gotten value from Stephanie’s narrative. If the story of her life has made you laugh, or cry, or think—please consider compensating the person who lived it. Because right now her story is the one thing she has to offer. We are being very thoughtful with the money. Stephanie knows that there are risks involved with publicly raising funds for a person in her vulnerable situation. So with her blessing, we will be placing the money in a trust to ensure that it provides sustainable, long term care. The trust will cover her living expenses and health care needs moving forward. (Which will admittedly be quite extensive.) And at Stephanie’s request, any money remaining at the end of her life will be donated to <a href="https://www.a-b-c.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Association To Benefit Children</a> —a highly respected New York charity dedicated to helping the city’s most vulnerable children. Please consider joining us as we seek to transform Stephanie’s life. ---------------------------------------------------------- Humans of New York is audience supported. If you would like to support Humans of New York, you can do so by joining the <a href="https://www.patreon.com/humansofnewyork" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Patreon. </a> Or by <a href="https://bit.ly/PreorderHumans" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">preordering Humans </a>, which will be published on October 6th. <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/51307760_1600634161839896_r.jpeg" alt="51307760_1600634161839896_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" />

The Tanqueray Trust