When I posted my diary “Help!” Is More Than Just a Beatles Song Title: A Desperate Plea for Help! yesterday, some comments strongly recommended that I post again today so that more people are exposed to it throughout the course of a full day in the various North American time zones. So I am posting an excerpt with a link to yesterday's full original version.
One additional note though before the infamous dKos orange squiggle. It disturbs me that my story of the last 2 or 3 years is shared by many others here in San Diego who I would never suspect. Just Sunday night when I was at a low point and despairing, a casual acquaintance who is becoming a close friend and who I admire with some jealousy for his success listened to my frustrations. He then lowered his voice and told me what he tells few if any: that he has been through the repo process and been foreclosed upon, that he lived in his car for 2 years, that he has starved in order to pay bills, but also that he survived and thrived and that there is hope for me. He had no idea until he was done telling his story that mine is the same. That sharing is what gave me the desperately needed boost to finish my diary and submit it.
If he reads this, ... Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have no idea how much you have changed my life for the better in that short time.
To everyone else reading this, too many others have also quietly shared their similar stories which don't end on as positive a note as his. Given the frequency with which I encounter that, I must say that something is wrong and the "system" is broken! We need to change that!!
And now, to the repost!
Let me be direct and to the point (a redundancy, I know!). I need help, I need it badly, and I need it quickly. And I am turning to the Kos community as a last resort. Literally.
.
I am homeless due to foreclosure as well as job losses. Yet for most of the last two years I have had a place where I lived: in my car. Unfortunately, a few days ago, that safe refuge in my life is now threatened too. My car engine began to idle extremely roughly and shudder when driven, and the “check engine” light not only appeared but was flashing. Using my car insurance roadside assistance on Friday morning, I was able to have it towed to a very reputable local car repair shop where I was informed after a few hours that an original coil in the engine’s injection system had corroded and that the coil and two cylinder units needed to be replaced or repaired along with the spark plugs to prevent additional damage.
Ironically, while cars are far from my strong suit, this car right now is my all! It’s my home, my kitchen, my means of food acquisition (I must use food distribution programs since my unemployment is too much to qualify for any food stamps but too small to include both gas and food), my bedroom, my transportation, my storage, and above all my safe space where I can avoid abuses which I witness so many other homeless suffer.
Understandably, the repair shop will not release the car until I have paid my bill in full. Any savings that I once had have long since disappeared, and my unemployment compensation was spent on necessary bills within one day of receiving it last Tuesday. Even if my last unemployment compensation received this last week was not spent on anything, it still would be too small to pay the entire repair bill. Because I don't even have a total of $1.00 in my combined debit and savings accounts, I am looking for help (one or more loans will seriously be considered!) in order to pay the approximately $900 car repair bill.
To read the yesterday's fuller post, please go to here!