Debora Henson...Our Neighbor

Our neighbor Debora Henson has had one terrible blow after the other over the last year or two and she’s about to lose her home as a result.  She lives next door and has on so many occasions called us to let us know that we've got a bunch of boxes at the gate. That may sound like a small thing, but It's almost always small vulnerable plants and more than once her calls have saved thousands of our babies from freezing, or from burning up in the sun.  We never asked for that and she doesn't have to....but she does. She's looking out for us. And it's made a difference. 

   As a childcare worker, she lost about a year’s worth of work when schools were shut down.  After she finally started back, she contracted Delta virus so bad that when she finally got out of the hospital, she had completely lost vision in one eye, lost all her hair, could barely walk, was on oxygen for months, and suffered frequent anxiety and panic attacks.  To this day, she still has problems recalling words and thinking as clearly as she used to, though she has recovered well enough to work full time again.

A few months back, her car went missing, so she had to purchase another one in order to get to the day care that she works at so she could keep her job and pay her bills.  The children she works with are also the brightest part of her days too and they keep her going emotionally, so it means a lot for her to be there. Last month a deer jumped out in front of her on the highway and demolished the front end of that car.  I saw it on the side of the road and it was completely totaled. I gave her a ride to work that day and as shaken as she was about the frightening accident, she was even more concerned about how she was going to afford the $500 deductible when she was already 3 payments behind on her mortgage, not to mention the powerbills, etc..

We managed to come up with the $500 for her, but she had to use it to pay late bills on her mortgage and then the insurance co told her that the deductible wasn't the issue anymore. They changed the story and told her the policy didn't cover deer. Not only is she out of a car, but got no insurance money, and still has to pay the $425 monthly payment on the totaled car ($3,500 total).  Her friends and family are taking turns driving her to and from work every day.

A few weeks after the accident, her best friend and the father of her 3 children, Henry,  suffered a massive stroke alone in the woods.  A week later, he passed away. 

 Henry was her daily support as she struggled through recovery from Covid.  She is absolutely grief stricken and simultaneously oppressed by the weight of all these physical and financial hardships. To compound matters, Henry also paid half the mortgage on the family home with her and that help is now gone.

Last I spoke with her, she said the rain was pouring in the through the roof and had resulted in a hole rotting through the floor in her kitchen. It’s devastating to see her constantly barraged with all this hardship and if ever there were a need for community coming together to make real impactful change in someone’s life, this is it.

We are hoping to raise enough money to help Debora get her roof repaired, get a reliable car, and cover her late mortgage payments and knock back a chunk of the principal.  She has no big windfall coming.  No inheritance or social safety net.  Without our help, she stands to lose her home.  So if you can, please pitch in what you can.  You truly will be making a major impact on one kind woman’s life and putting an unbelievably bright end onto a very dark year for her.