Queen Jackson and Debra MacKillop

Queen Jackson and Debra MacKillop

Interview transcript

Queen Jackson: I was working for the state of Colorado. And I had all these great ideas of retiring and sitting back and enjoying my life. But as the budget was becoming very strained, I was one of the first to be laid off. Well, I had some money in savings. And I thought, no big deal, I can go out and get another job. Well it didn’t happen that way. One week turned into another, a month, five months. And the unemployment was not covering my rent. Therefore I lost my apartment.

My daughter, you know, she wants so badly for me to move in with her. But I’m of a generation in which your children don’t take care of you; you take care of your children, you know. I remember I didn’t have the money to buy her a birthday card. And I thought, I’m gonna go out with this sign, “Will Work for Whatever”.

Well dummy me, I get dressed like I’m going to a job interview, and I had to laugh at myself, I’m like, you’re looking like, you know, pretty middle class out here. But, this man handed me a 10-dollar bill. I thanked him, and I bought my daughter a card. That meant so much to me.

I remember it was Christmas. I was in the shelter and um … I just started remembering when my daughters were little girls. You know, the smells of cooking, the joy. I felt so lonely. But I’ll never forget, the women received a gift bag. I got a little bottle of lotion, I opened it up, and I smelled it, and it was the most beautiful fragrance I had ever smelled. And I remember crying because it lifted my spirits so.

You know in my 30s or 40s, nobody could have told me that I was gonna be homeless at the age of 60. It was a bullet I didn’t see coming. Not at all.