Heather: Parenting and Grieving
Heather is used to managing chaos--she’s raising four kids and commutes from Pennsylvania to work in New York City, after all. But she couldn’t have imagined the impact coronavirus would have on her family. Her elderly mother became ill with the virus and passed away, and now Heather’s teenage son and her sister are sick with it as well. She has been furloughed from her job at the Children’s Place and is struggling financially. “It’s been an emotional roller coaster--it’s been really, really hard,” she said.
Heather’s mother was homebound and on oxygen for two years prior to the pandemic, and when she became sick with COVID-19, she passed away quickly. The family was unable to do a proper funeral for her due to social distancing requirements. “We couldn’t even comfort each other--it was just straight to the cemetery, no actual funeral. My youngest is seven--he keeps saying, ‘I want to go to Grandma’s house,” she said.
On top of managing her family’s grief, Heather is trying to help her kids stay on top of schoolwork, which has been challenging because two of them have special needs and don’t have access to their services in quarantine. “They have Zoom classes here and there, but it’s nothing like what they had in school, and they need physical hands-on help… now they’re just getting the visuals,” she said.
Because Heather has been furloughed, finances are tight for the family. She has applied for unemployment, but it took a month to get it and she is still worried about how she will cover the children’s expenses during shelter-in-place. Heather used the SaverLife $500 cash payment to cover her car insurance and buy some birthday presents for her youngest son, as well as a sign for her oldest who is graduating high school. The rest she put into savings. “I saved a good portion of it, and now I am just watching as bills come in, seeing what needs to be paid...I am still shocked that I got that money and I am so happy and thankful,” she said.
Heather has been using SaverLife to build up her savings and has been able to put aside a rainy day fund with SaverLife. “I told all of my coworkers about all of you. I said, ‘Do it!’ They’re always asking me how I save, so I tell them all the time to try it,” she said.