Queen Jackson (R) tells her case manager, Debra MacKillop (L), how she became homeless.
Originally aired December 16, 2011 on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Transcript
Queen Jackson (QJ) and Debra MacKillop (DM)
QJ: 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.