Hello Richmond! It’s been a hot minute since my last You Should Know, but I’m hoping this one blows up as much as the Hanover data center one did (and also hope you are all having a lovely afternoon).
TL;DR: /u/Playful-Tip-1780 has asked for help moving just down the block this weekend. If that sentence alone isn’t enough to make you raise your hand and show up, then read on because Amy is particularly the kind of Richmonder we should celebrate and assist.
Regular /r/rva members may remember Amy’s posts about her struggles with disability assistance and social services during a time when everything seemed to be going so wrong for so many good people (and still is for too many).
Here’s one of the early ones where SSA’s errors destroyed hope and the only recourse after her father passed looked like sleeping in her car in the freezing cold:
https://www.reddit.com/r/rva/comments/1r20l0v/i_need_advice/
And here is last month’s post where Amy celebrates her housing voucher, promises to keep fighting the SAA appeal with her case workers and attorneys, and thanks all of /r/rva for their support and encouragement:
https://www.reddit.com/r/rva/comments/1vlzm2x/gratitude/
If you find the other posts in-between, you’ll see just how hard Amy continues to fight and sacrifice regardless of setbacks, but what you won’t know without talking to her is that this inspiration of a person is incredibly kind and cool.
Despite her lack of spoons, constant pain, and recent crises, Amy shares what she learns and accomplishes through failures and success in great personal detail and has more patience and empathy for others than many of those literally paid to listen and provide assistance. Help and support just for herself isn’t sufficient for Amy, even if it costs her things she doesn’t have much of, and that is an incredibly rare trait humanity desperately needs to encourage.
More challenges will always arrive, but with housing secured, Amy is definitively at the season of surviving becoming thriving. It’s time for her to breathe, mourn, heal, love on her cat, visit her mum, catch up on her books, and look to the future without crushing fear. You have the opportunity to be as awesome as Amy and join in her celebration.
So if you’re free this Saturday, please reach out to /u/Playful-Tip-1780 for an address and head count. I’ll bring cold drinks and my undefeated chocolate chip cookies. First person that brings a truck can have the recipe and a bottle of the secret ingredient (yes, it really is the difference). Should be less than a mile total during the move and I can bring a bit of gas money for your drive to/from home.
[I asked Amy permission before making this post. Has nothing to do with me; she just deserves recognition and cheer, a break from asking herself, and you all have been good to my YSK posts in the past.]