We have now. Just in time... to gear up to moving again. SO...... I am going through all the boxes, throwing things out, listing stuff on eBay and OfferUp in an attemot to make some money and get stuff out of my house. Good times.
The first box I opened.... a picture of my first dog Siggy. I had her from when she was 4 weeks old, to when she was 16. I miss her every day.
So that brought tears to my eyes, and I fought off crying. The next items, I found were documents, birth, marriage and death certificates, doctor notes, handwritten notes, and more, from my mother and her husband. Both have passed. These all bring up weird emotions for me. We were not a happy family. She died 01-09-08 after an accidental fall on 01-04-08; she never regained consciousness.
In the end, she was generous and giving of her time to her community, and volunteered with the homeless in downtown Los Angeles with LACAN.
But... my mom was a prolific writer. So I am going to share some of what she has written, in no particular order as there is no way to tell when it was written. Some of it was to present to others, the other parts - who knows. I have typed these as she has written them (fighting my internal urge to correct any grammatical errors she may have made). If they are dated, I am going to put them in here under their actual date.
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| Peggy - My mom was always laughing. |
It doesn't even matter WHEN these were written, the topic is always timely. The need is always there.
~~~
Saint Jerome's Speech by Peggy Cummings
Good morning to you all. My name is Peggy Cummings and I would like to let you know what the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has meant to me.
Three years ago my husband was dying of bladder cancer. Both of us had to leave our jobs - him because he could no longer walk with the tumor rapidly growing inside him; and me, to care for him at home.
After his death, and exhausting all of our savings, I had nowhere but downtown to find a place to live.
Not only that, but Social Security was paying me a widow's benefit until they realized I was too young to collect. They put a freeze on my checking account, then took the $1,600 I had there. Also told me I had to repay the $6,000 they had given me.
Without a dime to my name, I learned that the Union Rescue Mission would allow me to stay for free until I gained an income again.
I was determined to give back to the downtown community for helping me when I needed it the most.
My case manager referred me to the Los Angeles Community Action Network - LACAN. They always welcome any help I could give.
They have been working over six years creating opportunities for low-income and homeless people such as me to gain a new start in life.
I volunteered my services for 1 1/2 years because I had finally found my place in life. LACAN's efforts to give power and voice for residents and their issues is building safer neighborhoods through our Community Watch program and providing education that allows residents to succeed in fighting City Hall to recognize that something needs to change so that needy persons are helped with housing and services.
LACAN is also providing a means of earning additional income through our Vendor Training program where they are licensed to solicit donations by distributing the only street newspaper in L.A....the Community Connection.
Six months ago, I was hired as a policy intern and organizer to work for our outreach efforts to a community in desperate need of support. With the unavailability of affordable housing, let alone nutritional food, and the horrendous "28-day shuffle" - LACAN continues its struggle to make the "power that be" change the plight of 90,000 homeless people within our city limits.
We've managed to place a moratorium on SRO hotels selling to developers to have replacement housing provided before renovations are begun, and residents are no longer forced to the streets. Our Residential Organizing Committee meetings are held twice a month.
Please help us to continue to give our low-income and homeless residents the life they need.
It's wrong for our government to continue to spend billions of dollars around the world - and depriving residents of America the same resources.
We need to help our downtown needy persons first.
Thank you so much for the caring. Please give as generously as you are able to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Those 90,000 homeless in L.A. are struggling for dignity.
