To Love Thy Neighbor Like One Loves Themselves

Times Were Tough

It was at a time when I had just lost my job and as a single mother with 2 boys and no support system I just knew that we were going to be homeless. I had enough money in my account to pay rent, get some groceries and put enough gas in my car to get us to do both and get home. I was staying in income based apartments so my rent was only 700$ but when you're jobless it might as well have been a million dollars. I was lost, afraid, and an emotional wreck.

For many a nights I would put my boys to sleep, sneak out on my apartment balcony and cry my eyes out to my bestfriend who lived 300 miles away. I would confide in her about how I felt like I failed as a parent and how I didn't know what my next move would be. I was at the lowest point that I had ever been and I just knew that I would never recover.

Little Snippets of Love

I will never forget the moment my neighbor introduced herself to me. It was on one of my wallowing nights of self pity. I was sitting in a hard plastic chair with my son's "Thomas the Train" blanket wrapped around my shoulder when she stepped out on her balcony across from me. She said nothing at first, she just leaned against the railing as her music drifted from inside her home and filled my ears. Tupac's Keep your head Up was playing.

I sat for a while listening to his words and taking them in from an entirely different stand point. I remember thinking how I'd listened to that song hundreds of times but never took it for it's true meaning until that moment.

"Hell of a hand without a man feeling helpless

Because there's too many things for you to deal with

Dyin inside but outside you're looking fearless

While tears is rollin' down your cheeks

You steady hopin' things don't fall down this week"

~Tupac- Keep Your Head Up

We both rapped the lyrics to ourselves while staring out into the trash filled park in front of us. It wasn't abnormal for people to be hanging out on their balcony or blasting music at all hours of the night. It kind of just came with the location but that night her playlist hit me right in the chest.

After a few songs we finally introduced ourselves and started talking about everything going on around us. The amount of people losing their jobs, the way our apartments refused to fix small problems, and how we wished for better days. She told me how her and her boyfriend were finally making enough to move out of the income based apartments and move somewhere nicer where they could raise their 4 kids. In that moment I didn't feel so alone in my struggle. It didn't change that the struggle was there but it did remind me that hundred of thousands of people have already gone through what I was going through and they'd made it through.

After an hour or so of us confiding in each other about our separate struggles and goals she revealed that her and her boyfriend had a lot of stuff that they needed to get rid of in preparation for their move. So, with a promise of coming by to "steal me away" for a few minutes the next morning to pick through what I wanted she went back inside.

That following morning I woke up to her knocking on my door with groceries, clothes, and an application from her job for a position that was open. She claimed that she had coupons that were expiring and didn't want to waste them; that the clothes, even though they still had tags on them, were bought a long time ago for her son.

I couldn't help the overwhelming emotion that I'd felt at that time. How someone that I barely knew had gone out of her way to help me.

She helped me fill out the application and allowed me to use her name as a reference since I had no one. After, she promised to drop it off after I went through her apartment to pick out what I wanted. Even after constantly telling her that she had done enough already she still dragged me across the path to her unit and into her bedroom where there were boxes and boxes of clothes, home goods, and baby products. I listened as she explained to me that she was big on freebies and coupons and how most of the stuff in their was under 10 dollars. I walked around looking at strollers and car seats with clearance tags on them in complete shock.

By the time I left out of her home I had a new black panther bedroom set for my boys, kitchen appliances, more groceries, and scooters that my kids went absolutely crazy over.

Two days later I got a call letting me know that they wanted to offer me a position making 3x what I was making at my previous job. I still choke up just thinking about how relieved and emotional I felt at that moment. How meeting one person changed the course of my life.

Authors Note: Shandrea switched jobs after her move and we lost touch but she's an example I like to go by when I'm paying it forward and helping out anyone and everyone around me. Whether the person looks well off or not. Her help getting me a position at her job is what made it possible for my kids and I to leave those old apartments and move into a different one in a better neighborhood with a cleaner park. She was heaven sent and if she ever reads this I hope she understands just how much she touched my heart!