Mother of six struggles to carve out new life for children
Share the Season is an annual campaign that offers one-time aid to people affected by unforeseen hardships. The people are not identified to protect their privacy.
The 28-year-old mother of six children was tired – tired of struggling to make ends meet, of trying to make her husband and father of her children happy. She had found a job working for $11 an hour at an assisted living facility.
But, she said, he did not like that she worked the night shift.
“After working long nights caring for my residents he would be angry with me if I wanted to come home and sleep, saying that I needed to cook and clean, which led to many arguments,” she wrote on her Share the Season application. “After months of exhausting myself … I finally had enough. I told him I was leaving.”
He grabbed her, shook her and beat her, she said, until her sister intervened and threatened to call the police.
She moved to her sister’s two-bedroom house with the children, who range in age from 1 to 10. But the house was too small for so many people.
Because the family owed past rent and utilities, the woman could not find enough money to put a deposit on a new home. Share the Season has helped her find a new place to live.
“It has been a really, really rough year,” the mother said. “When you live paycheck to paycheck, any financial emergency causes you to play catch-up and it just becomes harder and harder.”
Share the Season is a joint project of The Eagle, the Wichita Community Foundation and the Salvation Army.
So far this season, it has raised more than $68,756.
Send contributions to Share the Season at the Wichita Community Foundation, 301 N. Main, Suite 100, Wichita, KS 67202. To donate online, go to www.sharetheseason.org. If you have questions about donating, call 316-264-4880.
Donors will be listed in The Eagle; please note if you prefer to remain anonymous.
To apply for help, fill out an application at www.sharetheseason.org or pick one up at the Salvation Army, 350 N. Market. The application deadline is Dec. 20. For more information, call 316-263-2769.
Among recent donors: Keith Anderson; Darrell and Judy Baker; Randall Ball; Margot Breckill; Jay and Annetta Brown; Peggy Browning; Arlene Chadd; Mary Drake; Leo Ehrlich, in memory of Veda Ehrlich; Richard and Melinda Estes; Barbara Finney, in honor of Ora Finney and Velma Bryant; John and Sandra Herrington; David and Marilyn Hitchcock; Terry and Carol Jones; Leslie and Becky Langley; Errolene McClintick; Dorothy McIntire; Ann Murray, in memory of Terry Murray; Rosalie Myrtle;
Jonathan and Margaret Olsen; Lila Osborne; Terry Pope; Gary and Kathryn Regier, in honor of Jack and Zoey Bowman; Deryl and Anita Schuster; Douglas and Pauline Sharp; Christen Skaer; Robert Spitler; Timothy Swanson, in memory of Jay Swanson; Janice Tuttle; Dale Wahlers; Scott and Ann Weidensaul, in memory of Randy Banks and Bethany Weidensaul; Barbara Wright; Renee Young, in memory of Kevin Peschka; Melva Zimmerman, in honor of Leroy Zimmerman; anonymous, in memory of Kenneth Harshfield; anonymous, in honor of Kayli Smith and Loretta Nackor; anonymous, in memory of Joyce; anonymous, in honor of Joan Rennaker; and 20 other anonymous donors.
This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 5:50 PM with the headline "Mother of six struggles to carve out new life for children."