It Takes a Village
Donation protected
Hello dearest friends and family, my name is Ruby Goldberg and I’m here to help my lifelong friend Leah.
Here we are as college kids in the 90s…probably laughing as we have since we were 8 year olds.
This is Whimsical Pond.
I’ve been there and it’s beautiful and full of life. It’s a wildlife pond Leah made a year ago at her home. She built it out of love for the environment and love for her family. She also made it for the home-based business she started right after the Pandemic called Whimsical Family Farm; an organic food micro farm. For over six years now, Leah has devoted every single resource she has/had to her husband, stepdaughter, their home together, and their home business.
Many of us know that Leah lost her mother and became an orphan when she was eleven. For most of her life, she had no knowledge of a small amount of money her mother had left behind. Finally last year, thirty-five years later, she received her inheritance. Trusting in her future with her husband, Leah used every penny on her family, home, and business.
This was Leah’s life until very recently, when she was forced into an immediate crisis. Without warning, Leah was served with divorce papers by her mother-in-law’s close friend. Her mother-in-law owns the property she and her husband live on and they are her tenants.
By abusing her role as mother, she coerced Leah’s husband into forcing a divorce on her. The divorce effectively segregates Leah from her family and is being used to evict only her, from her only home. As soon as the divorce papers were served, the landlord immediately began harassing Leah with letters from her lawyer, threatening eviction.
It is apparent that Leah’s landlord is using her economic dominance to potentially do lasting damage to her housing future.
In just a few months, she has destroyed Leah’s marriage, her livelihood, her family, and her home. Sadly, Leah is being refused humane treatment, and her husband and landlord have traumatized her. Understandably, she is completely crushed.
Right now, Leah is isolated and without community in rural Mendocino County California, where there are barely any resources and very few living wage jobs. She is suffering tremendously.
I want to help get her out of Mendocino and back home to San Francisco where she can find a job, a home, emotional support, and the assistance she needs to survive this crisis.
It is my sincere hope that as a community we can rally around Leah and spare her the additional trauma of destitute homelessness.
A few days ago, The Ukiah Daily Journal published an article about the homeless crisis in Mendocino County. I’ve included a link at the bottom if you want to take a closer look at that reality.
The funds raised here will go directly and immediately toward housing, transportation for job hunting, phone bill, and food while Leah rebuilds.
Please help me save my friend, our friend, from this heartbreaking injustice.
Deepest gratitude for your much needed compassionate contributions.
State of homelessness in Mendocino County: More resources needed to address complex issues
In the world of homelessness in Mendocino County, Sage Fae Wolf is one of the “sages” working in the arena of homeless services provision.
Organizer and beneficiary
Ruby Esther
Organizer
Oakland, CA
Leah Brown
Beneficiary