“Life is like
a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get.” This line made famous by the fictional
character Forrest Gump describes the experience of Katrina Gilbert. This documentary begins with the main
character, Katrina, giving a show and tell about her tattoo. The tattoo reads “Alis volat propriis” which translates
to, “I fly with my own wings, and I don’t need anyone else to hold me up.” After
watching the show I find her predicament quite the contrary to her tattoo. Katrina desperately needs someone to hold her
up and help her.
Katrina
Gilbert is a 29-year-old single mom who has a ton of medical issues; by the way
she has no health insurance. She has
three bambino’s: Brooklyn-7, Lydia-5 and Trent-3. Katrina works full time as a Certified Nurse
Assistant for less than $9.50/hr. She
lives in a trailer park and owns a car. It doesn’t take a nuclear scientist to
discern that they are poor. And per the
documentary there are many Katrina’s, “42MM women in America living in poverty
or teetering on its brink. More than
13MM are mothers of young children.”
When it
comes to looking at life as a box of chocolates, I do agree with Forrest Gump,
you never know what you will get. But I
also believe that we have a hand in the cards we are dealt. Katrina made a number of conscious decisions
and now she finds herself trying to survive.
But that is another story.
For over 12
years, my wife and I worked with kids at risk and have some experience with
single parents. What I respect about
Katrina is that she’s doing the best she can, health issues and all, to take
care of her family. We have found, in all our years working with this
demographic, that it is impossible to help somebody who doesn’t want to help
him or her self. So I guess I answered
the question: should we help?
I find Katrina’s
tattoo so telling. At this time, she does need some assistance…but would she
take it if it were offered? This is
where self-perception and reality meet.
Here in
Texas, my wife and I are quite familiar with a program out of Quinlan that
helps people like Katrina every day. The
name of the place is Bowles Children’s Home. Located in rural East Texas, this
resource for single parents, called The Together Program, provides training,
childcare, counseling, housing, and job placement assistance at low or no cost,
until the mother and children are prepared to go out on their own.
We should
help single parents who have the drive to pursue a better quality of life for
themselves and their children. The
bottom line is everyone in life at one point or another has endured a struggle
and someone has been there to help them.
Katrina isn’t any different.
