Seven years ago when I was a student at Seattle Central Community College, I met a woman in the park across from school. Her and her partner at the time had just come down from BC and were living in the park. I sat on a blanket and ate lunch with her as she told me at least some of the details of her life that had led to that moment. She had fled an abusive marriage and was avoiding doing time for growing pot in California. Every time I saw her on the streets after that day, she was excited about something. She was constantly looking into programs that could help her find her feet again which is a challenging thing to do when you're disabled and homeless. I let her stay with me from time to time and have a shower and a bed, and brought her loads of food from the burrito joint I worked in at the time. In exchange she became this radiant karmic angel that would appear in my life when I needed her most. Like when I had suffered a severe head injury in a surfing accident and didn't have medical insurance. She found me crying on the curb outside the 45th street clinic and calmed me down. She gave me all the phone numbers I needed to find sliding scale medical care, convinced the nurse at the clinic that had refused me to let us use the phone, and even got me on the right bus so I wouldn't get lost. As she became a mother to all the motherless street kids on the hill, she never gave up her efforts to better her own circumstances. No matter what challenges were thrown her way, she always focused on the positive side of things. In fact, only once did I see her broken down. She had been looking into low income housing, and selling hemp jewlry on the streets to come up with the cash. But once all her work had finally paid off, she found she was fifty dollars shy of getting into a place. Now, at the time I was living off minimum wage plus tips... but I took a look at the situation. Fifty dollars to me meant that I would have to live off burrito joint scraps for a week or so. To her it was the difference between a place to live or a sidewalk. I gave her fifty bucks, and had a friend deliver an old futon I didn't need so she would have a bed. She had achieved the goal that had been consuming most of her energy, but she didn't stop there.
She grew in her jelwry making and was able to make enough to get by. Now with the basic needs of food and shelter mostly taken care of she focused on her health. She had surgery for pelvic cancer, got new braces for her deteriorating knees, and was even able to see a dentist. She cried when she smiled at me the first time with her new teeth. She said the smile had always been in her, it just wasn't represented on her face.... now she could show it to the world.
With all of this going on, most people wouldn't have the energy to take on much else... but most people aren't Mama Sara. She loved her street family and took their needs very seriously. She had been through the system so much that she was getting very skilled at doing paper work. She put her go getter attitude to work on forming a homeless youth advocacy group called PSKS (Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets) and runs a program called CHEW (Capital Hill Eats Well) which focuses on proper nutrition for homeless people in the area. She has become an active spokesperson and advocate for the homeless community and has appeared on several local and national television programs on the subject. When she walked into my station tonight to be interviewed for the Real Change program, we saw eachother and squeeled. I ran down the stairs and we embraced for about three minutes. I was so proud of her when I heard about all that she has accomplished since our paths last crossed. She was elated that I had graduated with a double degree and was using it to work for a non-profit community media center. I proposed that our organizations team up and teach street kids how to produce their own media messages to bring awareness to the issues that concern them most in their reality. Mama Sara has proven that you're voice can be your power.
It was really amazing for me to run into her tonight. The producers of the program were so touched by our reunion display that they asked me to come on the show and talk with Sara about how we met, and what we hoped to accomplish together in the future. I am excited for this new relationship. Tonight two people who met as a homeless woman and a fast-food worker exchanged buisness cards and made plans to treat ourselves to one anothers partnership in empowering a very disinfranchised group and adding a new perspective to the media. We truly are some BAD ASS Women!
