BOUNTIFUL – Lucy Armstrong was working as a realtor during the 2011 holiday season when she found herself homeless.
She kept working, all the while dealing with tension in her relationship with her estranged husband.
In a letter to the Clipper, she told how her experience with other women at the shelter showed her how difficult it is to start over.
She saw women whose bank accounts had been emptied or frozen, who had to walk away from nice homes and financial support.
She saw women who didn’t have the education or financial resources to start over.
Many didn’t have jobs, many had legal battles as well as concerns over children and safety.
“Sadly, I watched many of my new friends go back to their abusers because financially it made sense and/or because they believed their abuser would change and/or because they believed they owed an allegiance to their marital vows,” she wrote in the letter.
After seeing the needs of women and of the shelter that housed them, Armstrong was determined to help them.
When she left the shelter, she committed to help find storage space for donations that were turned away because there was no place to store them.
She also encouraged and supported the Davis County Realtor’s donation to the Safe Harbor shelter.
“In the shelter and in life, I learned there is a pecking order,” she wrote. “People who give generously are at the top. Those who take and never return kindnesses are at the bottom.”
Post a Comment
