A triumph....

Another memory...this one from 2000....

The first time I ever met Karen I was working as a representative payee. She was brought to me by her case manager who found out that Karen had tried to pay her $400 per month rent with four ten dollar bills. That was when she realized that Karen did not understand money or have any money management skills.

Karen came quietly into the office, shook my hand when we were introduced and then starting yelling, "I DON'T NEED NO FUCKING PAYEE!!" at the top of her lungs. It took some smooth talk to get her to calm down. Although the first few months were extremely rocky she seemed to eventually come around to the idea. Or so I thought. Karen, who was diagnosed with a developmental disability and moderate mental retardation, always had a series of shady characters in her life. Each time she would meet one of them, they would convince her that she could handle her own money and she would come into my office, angry and belligerent, demanding to be her own payee. I finally reached a point where I told her that since the Social Security Administration had appointed me as her payee, they were the only ones who could change it and she should contact their office to do so. Karen took character after character into the Social Security offices trying to get them named as her payee. Each one was shot down for a variety of reasons - no job, no home, outstanding warrants for their arrest. Karen finally gave up and resigned herself to working with me.

Not too much later, I was hired as a case manager and all case management services were moved to the agency I worked for. Lo and behold, Karen was on my case load. By this time, she had come to realize I was on her side and was looking out for her best interests. She would come to me when she was having any problems and felt safe to talk to me about anything.

Karen's one true goal in life was to get a job. She wanted desperately to work in the janitorial or laundry fields. Her job seeking skills left something to be desired. I made a referral to a local sheltered work shop in the hopes she would be able to learn some of these skills. It was a mistake. Karen did not understand how learning to do piece work, earning only pennies per piece, was going to help her get a job anywhere. (Come to think of it, she was right!) She went back and forth, in and out of the workshop for months until she finally gave it up altogether. I felt bad about it but at that time it was our only resource. I went with her to the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation hoping there might be something out there that I had overlooked. Karen was very excited about the appointment but we were both sorely disappointed when, after answering endless questions, we were referred back to the local workshop again.

Our next tactic for jobs was to apply for them independently. I knew this was a long shot. But Karen religiously brought in applications week after week and wee meticulously filled in what information we could. The section asking for past work experience always stumped us because there just wasn't any! Of course, none of these jobs panned out.

It was a full two years later that the State government came up with a new program to help disabled individuals find and keep a job. Again, another long shot but we had tried everything else so why not this? An appointment was set up and Karen met with the people from the new program. At first she was hesitant. But after several meetings and extra patience, Karen was sent out to shadow at a few different locations. She did wonderfully! It was exactly what she needed to get her going. She received her first paycheck just before Christmas that year and I've never seen anyone happier.

Karen is the poorest person I have ever known. She lives on a very limited income, has no real possessions to speak of and is very easily taken advantage of by almost everyone she's ever tried to befriend, and yet she is the most determined person I know. Her deficits far outweigh her capabilities but she never gives up. She has visualized how she thinks her life should be and I have no doubt that she will do everything she can to make it so.

I am no longer her case manager but she comes to the office one each week and asks to speak to me. She tells me how she's doing and what's new in her life. The woman who once would only swear at me now trusts me and I enjoy hearing from her. If a weeks goes by and I don't hear from her I know something is wrong and I alert her case manager. Everyone should be so lucky to know someone like Karen.

(NOTE: UPDATE: Since I wrote this a lot has happened in Karen's life. She is no longer in need of case management. She's moved to Milwaukee where she has a nice apartment and a new job. I ran into her a few months ago when she came to Kenosha to visit a friend. She updated me on her life and all that's happened and it's all been very, very good. She is in her 50s now and was just diagnosed with a significant hearing loss which she most likely had her whole life but never got any adequate testing. She now has hearing aids and her ability to understand what's being said and to communicate clearly has increased and is impressive. It's likely that she was misdiagnosed as mentally retarded when she was a child because, unfortunately, if a hearing loss goes undiagnosed from an early age the child is often put into Special Ed classes and labelled for the rest of their lives. Karen is a survivor of so many things - poverty, a shoddy medical system, lack of proper insurance, abuse, and neglect - and yet she is triumphant in attaining those common things we often take for granted. Karen's spirit and will to better herself against all odds inspires me.)