On September 20, I turned 44 years old, and I was diagnosed with Hereditary Stage Two Breast Cancer. My common-law husband, Quincy D Proctor of 10 years, was a Texas Rural Mail Carrier who worked for the Round Rock Texas Frontier Office for 20 years before retiring to be a caregiver and emotional supporter for me during the initial transition to assist in my rigorous chemotherapy treatment and life-altering medications that I was prescribed to treat my breast tumor. We had a very good discussion about the plan and how to use the few resources that he had available from his Thrift Savings Account. The plan was for us to use his savings to pay for the next two years of treatment and traveling expenses back and forth, which would average around 200 miles per trip, sometimes twice a week. The cost of the trips would eventually be to much to pay for a rental property, and the cost of gasoline for an average day was about $60 dollars. That cost was not the only issue with the circumstances. The housing crisis has been the most intense of all because we have been homeless since last December, and we are still living in a Truck in a small town in Texas where people don’t really know what our housing situation is. The only money that we had was systematically frozen for months, and ultimately we lost all of the money we had because of the fact that Quincy was not able to work and afford the child’s support for his early retirement from the Postal Service. The money was not returned and we are not able to get a job that would allow us to pay for rent because of the household median income loopholes that affect our small town income brackets. The only way we have made it this long is by the Grace Of God.
