There, but for the grace of God, go I

[BDBoop]

YORK | Strangers help York woman, boy found living in makeshift tent | The Herald - Rock Hill, SC

Tuesday marked the fifth day 51-year-old Janice Dowd and her 7-year-old grandson slept in a tent in woods beside a York shopping center.

Three of those nights were filled with rain, in a place police say is frequented not just by mosquitoes, but sometimes by vagrants and drunks.

Police and the state Department of Social Services investigated after a woman told police she saw the pair living in the woods.

By Wednesday afternoon - after quick action by strangers who had never met Dowd until Tuesday, when they spotted her walking down a sidewalk toward that lean-to that she was living in - Dowd had moved bed and clothes, games and food, into an apartment in Clover.

"Nobody should have to live like that, and, by God, if I have anything to say about it, it will never happen again," said Ken Thomas, a 72-year-old retired military veteran who saw Dowd near her tent Tuesday and immediately opened up his home for her to sleep Tuesday night.

"A granny and a child out in a tent. That's not the America I know."

Three years ago, that would have been me, (sans grandchild). My husband made a unilateral decision our marriage was over. I had been a housewife for the past eight years. He kicked me to the curb, like I was just another form of trash. If my sister had not opened her home to me ... I asked him. What if she hadn't. Where did he think I'd go? He didn't know.

I was/am blessed. I had a sister who could make space for me, and she had a significant other who said yes, she can stay. Five weeks later, I had a job, and I saved to get my own apartment. Five months later, the job was past-tense, and I started earning on the internet. My best friend was my safety net. I'm in the process of paying her back, and at the end of my first year of employment, the $2400 she expended on me in 2011 will be paid in full.

Not all of us are so blessed. Hundreds of thousands if not millions are not so blessed. The lady in the article actually had to land in a tent in the woods before anybody helped her. In this country. Allegedly and arguably "the greatest country in the world", a middle-aged woman wound up homeless, with her grandson.

That's just wrong.

 

[Defiant1]

YORK | Strangers help York woman, boy found living in makeshift tent | The Herald - Rock Hill, SC

Tuesday marked the fifth day 51-year-old Janice Dowd and her 7-year-old grandson slept in a tent in woods beside a York shopping center.

Three of those nights were filled with rain, in a place police say is frequented not just by mosquitoes, but sometimes by vagrants and drunks.

Police and the state Department of Social Services investigated after a woman told police she saw the pair living in the woods.

By Wednesday afternoon - after quick action by strangers who had never met Dowd until Tuesday, when they spotted her walking down a sidewalk toward that lean-to that she was living in - Dowd had moved bed and clothes, games and food, into an apartment in Clover.

"Nobody should have to live like that, and, by God, if I have anything to say about it, it will never happen again," said Ken Thomas, a 72-year-old retired military veteran who saw Dowd near her tent Tuesday and immediately opened up his home for her to sleep Tuesday night.

"A granny and a child out in a tent. That's not the America I know."

Three years ago, that would have been me, (sans grandchild). My husband made a unilateral decision our marriage was over. I had been a housewife for the past eight years. He kicked me to the curb, like I was just another form of trash. If my sister had not opened her home to me ... I asked him. What if she hadn't. Where did he think I'd go? He didn't know.

I was/am blessed. I had a sister who could make space for me, and she had a significant other who said yes, she can stay. Five weeks later, I had a job, and I saved to get my own apartment. Five months later, the job was past-tense, and I started earning on the internet. My best friend was my safety net. I'm in the process of paying her back, and at the end of my first year of employment, the $2400 she expended on me in 2011 will be paid in full.

Not all of us are so blessed. Hundreds of thousands if not millions are not so blessed. The lady in the article actually had to land in a tent in the woods before anybody helped her. In this country. Allegedly and arguably "the greatest country in the world", a middle-aged woman wound up homeless, with her grandson.

That's just wrong.

So, somehow I'm financially responsible for women without back-up plans?

 

[BDBoop]

Generally, happily married women are unaware of the need for back up plans.