A 57-year-old woman from Hardeeville, South Carolina down during a Friday call to CSPAN’s Washington Journal in which she described facing homelessness after losing her job as a nurse in the coronavirus pandemic.
“Due to Covid-19, I couldn’t work, because I have underlying diseases. I have Sarcoidosis, I have Sickle Cell, and at that time, my sugar diabetes was a 10,” said the woman, who went by “Thea.” “And my doctor thought — and my insurance — thought it was time for me to leave that job for a little while.”
The woman explained that she had been a health-care worker for 33 years. “I’ve tried unemployment, tried to file for unemployment — at this point, I don’t even have insurance to take care of myself. I lived in my house for 25 years, and I don’t even have the money to take care of myself,” she said, before breaking down. “I got the papers from the doctor stating that I could go back to work, and they tell me they have no hours for me.
“So I’m just in really a rut. This morning, I’m getting up, and I’ve been looking for jobs, and just for some reason, I can’t get one in my field,” she said, noting that she had been working as a CNA in Hiltonhead, South Carolina. “For some reason, I just can’t get no help whatsoever. I got foreclosure on my house. I just paid off my car. And I just feel like in the next couple of months, I’ll be living in my car. I don’t want to depend on nobody because I’ve been taking care of myself for years, and my children. And I just think this is so awful.”
“I just needed somebody to hear me,” she told the host.
Subsequent callers offered support for the woman, with one offering to give her $1,000. Another man, “Michael,” offered a portion of his disability payments. “I just wanted to address the lady that called earlier,” he said. “I’m on Social Security disability, and I’m willing to give her whatever I can afford out of that check every month to get her back on her feet.”
It wasn’t clear whether CSPAN was able to connect the callers with the woman.
Watch above via CSPAN.
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