I met Sarah at a local café. We both happened to be there enjoying one of those rare occasions where the kids were not with us and we were able to sit and sip (not gulp!) a cup of coffee. We strike a conversation because we are both teachers and the beginning of the school year is fast approaching. Then Sarah makes the comment that starts it all.
“If only this economy would let go of me!” I’m writing a piece on the economy and its effects on people like me and on their families. Sarah is very much like me. I ask and she agrees to an interview… the confessional begins. This is what she had to say.
Sarah: It all began about four years ago. My husband and I were already having marital issues that would lead to our divorce a year later. But that’s not the reason why I’m where I am today. A divorce I can handle, being on my own I can handle, but not being able to provide for my child – that I cannot handle!
Back then life appeared to be good. My husband was doing great business in real estate, sometimes having to turn away clients. We had just purchased a gorgeous new home in a trendy neighborhood. I was living my dream of being a stay-at-home mom and taking care of our two-year old son. Then the real estate bubble popped and the mortgage crisis began. It seems funny that we didn’t lose our home to the divorce but as a result of the escalating financial crisis. I decided to go back to work in an attempt to recover and that’s when the juggling act began for me. Finding affordable childcare was as struggle, we had to downsize our home and our cars, cutting corners everywhere we could just to make it that first year. The bankruptcy left us demoralized and broke and it definitely didn’t help our relationship. After we finally separated, my husband’s income was close to none. He had to get a job at a supermarket just to be able to pay his monthly bills and was unable to support us.
So there I was on my own, truly a single mom. I’ve stopped counting every time I cry, it seems like a waste of time when I could be working or selling something to make some cash instead.
Things got progressively worst. My now ex-husband finally landed a new job but we soon realized that what he could afford to give us barely covered our monthly childcare costs. I decided to take on a second job teaching online in the evenings. I knew this would be a stretch but I never imagined it would tax my energy and emotional reserves so deeply. My days are pretty much a repetition of this: I wake up, take care of my child, drive him to school, teach all day, pick my son up, run errands, go home, try to spend time with him while starting my second job (which luckily I can do at home), taking phone calls from students and parents and grading papers while cooking - all at the same time. Later in the evening, I put my son in bed, finish my evening school work and by the time I walk into my bathroom, sometimes after midnight, I look in the mirror and with a defeated look on my face I realize I’m wearing the same clothes I had on at 5:00 in the morning and are too tired to even try to take them off.
Last month I had to drop my son’s health insurance because I couldn’t afford to make the payments anymore. I stop breathing every time I hear the littlest cough and pray that he doesn’t get sick. I’ve asked all my friends for money, favors - you name it – I’ve begged someone for it! I sank to a new low yesterday when I had to secretly open my son’s piggy bank to see if I could buy enough gas to last for the rest of the week…
When I asked Sarah what she thought of the current political situation she said: “I listen to the news and hear those politicians bickering, booing, and yelling at each other instead of doing their jobs and I wish I could walk in that chamber and tell them, enough already, stop behaving like my first grade students and start doing something for me!” She was angry and I realized so was I.
I wonder how many people feel like Sarah, fighting against the world on their own, Washington’s troubles miles away, far removed from reality. How many people, normal, ordinary, drive to work every day wondering if today will be their last day of work. How many mothers watch over their children praying to their guardian angels to protect them because they know they don’t have insurance to be able to take them to a doctor if they get hurt or sick.
The last time I talked to Sarah, a few weeks after our interview, she was looking for a place to move with her son, she had just been evicted.
Written by Rose Rodriguez
http://roseintheslowlane.blogspot.com/
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