Lights on and food in fridge
Every day, Sergianna wakes up, gets her six children off to school, then logs onto her computer to work remotely full time as a customer service specialist for a home improvement store. As a single mother, she balances taking care of her children, career and home all on her own.
Despite the challenge single motherhood presents, Sergianna has provided for her family financially, although the budget is tight. She keeps them afloat through savvy spending and frugal saving.
Things were chugging along until her Ford Flex had some car trouble in August.
“My car broke down, and I had to pay over $600 to fix it,” Sergianna said. “It kind of just hits you all at once.”
The unexpected expense threw off her whole budget. She didn’t have that much money in savings, and it meant that she wouldn’t have enough to afford her next big summer utility bill, causing a ripple effect in her budget that put her at risk of falling short on rent as well.
Fortunately, when she shared her predicament with a friend, he told her to look up St. Vincent de Paul.
The call center at SVdP’s main campus answered Sergianna’s call for help, connecting her with the Vincentian volunteers operating one of SVdP’s 80 pantries and bill assistance centers out of local neighborhood Catholic churches. The Vincentians from Sergianna’s local parish, Saints Simon and Jude Cathedral, let her know they would be able to help with utility assistance and a food box.
Lori Sellers, the District 6 Vincentian president, was one of the Vincentians who visited Sergianna. Lori said sees someone in a tough situation like Sergianna’s almost every time she goes out on her weekly home visits, but that Sergianna impressed her.
“I always admire how people like Sergianna handle the stress of tough situations. It takes an unbelievable amount of strength to balance it all,” Lori said. “She tries not to have the kids aware of how difficult their situation is, how dire it is, to not stress them out. She tries to make the lives of her kids the best they can be.
“Vincentians’ roles are to help her feel like she’s not alone,” Lori continued. “There’s something so powerful in being able to lean on someone a little. We at SVdP, we're right there on the front lines of those kinds of relationships.”
Fortunately, Lori and the other Vincentians from Sergianna’s local parish were able to offer that little bit of support Sergianna needed.
“Once I got that phone call, ‘Hey, we're going to help you.’ I was super relieved,” Sergianna said. “I said to myself, ‘Oh, thank God, my lights aren't going to be turned off. I can at least have cold food for my kids.’"
“It's going to continuously be a blessing for me,” she added. “It definitely was a huge burden just lifted off my shoulders.”
A few days later, the Vincentians brought her the check that would let the family not only stay in their home but keep the lights on and the water running. They also brought a food box to offer additional relief and help Sergianna stretch her budget.
“It's a blessing for sure, to see my kids smiling and able to eat and not having to worry so much,” she said.
Sergianna and her family aren’t entirely out of the woods yet, but she caught the financial breath she needed to continue forward.
“I was trying for over a month to find assistance before I found help, and it's been tough, but I kept pushing forward and asking God to help me,” Sergianna said. “Just always be willing to ask for help when it's needed, because there's a lot of people out here that need help.”
