Mother battling mental illness seeks stability
Raising three children while struggling with mental illness and having no job or family support has been difficult for Veronica, a single mother.
“There are sometimes I feel like a failure,” said Veronica, 36, who suffers from anxiety and severe depression disorders and has been unable to work. “It sometimes bothers me because I feel like I should be able to do more. I wish I could battle the anxiety and fix that so I could go back to work and there would be more money in the household.
“I’m trying very hard to conquer it because I want to go back to work. But we’ve moved a lot,” said Veronica, a mother of three boys ages 15, 12 and 9, one of
whom is autistic. “We’ve gone through a lot of mental health issues, a lot of struggles that way.”
The family has struggled through many difficulties, including the incarceration of the children’s father.
“We had to move several times because he got us evicted. Finally, I called it quits and decided to be on my own because that was not fair to me and those kids. I didn’t want us hopping from home to home. That was not fair, they had no stability whatsoever,” Veronica recalled.
Veronica, who qualified for a voucher for subsidized housing in Phoenixville, said she now feels blessed that her family is together in a warm home for the holidays. “We have stable housing now. I have made sure that our bills come first, that our housing comes first,” Veronica said.
“My kids get upset with me when birthdays roll around or Christmas and I tell them we’re not going to go all out. I ask them, ‘Which would you prefer, housing or would you rather be in a bad situation?’ I don’t want us to ever be in that kind of situation again,” Veronica added.
Veronica said the public assistance she does receive doesn’t allow for extras.
“I can’t tell you how many times I have stretched and stretched and stretched the money. I don’t know how we even make it through. There are times that we don’t even have much to eat,” said Veronica, adding she sometimes has to go to food pantries run by churches in order to put food on her table.
Veronica said she tries to communicate her financial plight to her children.
“I’ve had talks with them. They say they understand but I’m sure they don’t see it that way. They think I can just pull money out of nowhere and just make it happen,” Veronica said.
“I hate that they get disappointed and angry at me at times when I have to tell them ‘No,’” added Veronica. “I tell them we are blessed that we have a home to live in, that we have warmth during this cold weather and that we have food every day. I tell them they need to be glad we have these things because one day we might not have them.”
Veronica expressed gratitude when she learned her family was selected as a recipient of The Mercury’s annual Operation Holiday program.
“That’s a wonderful thing. Without a lot of the help I had in the past my kids wouldn’t have much of anything. It’s a really good blessing. It helps us out when I’m not able to do quite a bit,” Veronica said.
“It’s wonderful that other people can help. There’s a lot of people out there that need help,” she added.
Veronica shared her story with The Mercury to inspire those who can to give to the children of our community at this most appropriate time, the holidays.
Now in its 28th year, Operation
Holiday has provided a brighter holiday season to thousands of families with children. Last year, more than $42,000 in donations allowed the program to provide food and gifts for 147 families with 412 children in need.
The program was created and exists for children. The mission of Operation Holiday is to ensure that children of the Pottstown area have food to eat and gifts to open, no matter how poor or difficult their family situation may be.
There is no overhead with Operation Holiday and all funds stay in the Pottstown area. Families are referred by more than 20 local agencies and churches.
Funds are collected and audited in a non-profit foundation account managed by staff of The Mercury.
Food, which includes the fixings for a holiday dinner
as well as staples for the pantry, is ordered, bought, packed and distributed by Mercury employees and Pottstown High School student government volunteers.
Gift cards for every child in the program 16 years of age or younger are purchased through Boscov’s and distributed in partnership with the referring agencies.
Operation Holiday does not accept families who have not been referred by an agency in order to protect the integrity of the program.
Operation Holiday is funded solely by readers’ contributions. All contributions are tax deductible.
Contributions should be mailed to The Mercury, Attn: Operation Holiday, 390 Eagleview Blvd., Exton, PA 19341. Make checks payable to Operation Holiday.