The Enquirer and United Means of Larger Cincinnati have joined forces for the thirty sixth 12 months to assist households in want with the Want Checklist program. That is the fourth of eight tales that can seem this month.
At 47, Diana Tarley has seen greater than her share of heartbreak and sorrow.
Within the late Nineteen Nineties, she fled from her native Liberia, a West African nation embroiled in civil conflict, and escaped to neighboring Ivory Coast. However when civil conflict broke on the market in 2002, the daddy of her two youngsters was killed.
In 2004, via a refugee resettlement program, Diana and her youngsters, then each underneath age 5, arrived in the USA. Diana spoke little English. Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio helped them begin new lives in Cincinnati.
“It was tough,” Diana stated. “The primary 12 months, I cried each evening, day-after-day, as a result of we had no household right here.”
She acquired a job doing laundry at St. Margaret Corridor, a talented nursing house in East Walnut Hills administered by the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm. Impressed by Diana’s exhausting work and willpower, one of many sisters paid for her to obtain coaching as a state-tested nurse assist.
The work fits Diana effectively. “I like serving to individuals,” she stated. “Once I’m caring for individuals, it makes me pleased. I see my grandma via them.”
Her grandmother, who raised her, determined to not accompany Diana to America. “She was afraid to come back. She didn’t know the way life could be right here.” She turned ailing and died alone in Liberia.
Diana doesn’t remorse her choice to come back to America. She turned a U.S. citizen 10 years in the past. She relishes the alternatives out there to her youngsters. They’re now 22 and 20 and attend Cincinnati State.
Nonetheless, over the previous 18 months, misfortune has continued to plague Diana. First, the house she was renting was bought. Unable to search out inexpensive housing, she was referred to the Welcome House Collaborative, a nonprofit transitional housing program that helped her discover short-term housing in Colerain Township.
Shortly after transferring in, she turned ailing. She underwent three surgical procedures for a gastrointestinal situation and was unable to work from December 2021 till April of this 12 months.
She had been again at work just some months when her 28-year-old nephew – whom she helped elevate – died out of the blue. He was buried in September.
“I pray day-after-day: God, can one thing higher occur to me in my life?”
Diana drives to work in a minivan she purchased final 12 months. It’s greater than 20 years previous and in poor mechanical situation. It generally breaks down throughout her commute. She is afraid to drive it on a freeway.
Her want is for a protected, dependable car. It might not solely transport her to and from work, however someday she hopes it can take her to nursing lessons. A nursing diploma would assist her obtain monetary stability. She additionally desires to be a nurse “for a similar motive I’m a nurse aide. I simply so love to assist individuals.”
Diana’s want: A protected, dependable car.
Estimated value: $5,000
The right way to assist
Donations could be made on-line at www.uwgc.org/wishlist. You too can mail donations to: United Means of Larger Cincinnati, Attn: Want Checklist Pledge Processing, P.O. Field 632840, Cincinnati, OH 45263-2840. Please embody “Want Checklist” within the memo line on checks.
John Johnston is the content material author at United Means and a former Enquirer reporter.
