A Stretched Family April 5, 2016
Rita Norquist, Olympia
“My ninety-six-year-old mother has been living with me for seven years. When she moved in I still had four of my twelve adopted kids living with me. Now I have two kids at home. One of my kids is in college, and the youngest is eighteen. My youngest has been fighting cancer for a year. He is in Seattle Children’s Hospital where he received a stem cell transplant and will have a second transplant soon. It’s been difficult to take care of everyone physically and financially. I had to find someone to care for my Mom because we can’t afford long term care for her and Cody. I have to live in Seattle during his cancer treatments. In the beginning we thought we would be here a month or two. Now we will be here until the middle of June. I don’t know what I would do if my friend couldn’t watch her. It takes every penny I have to reimburse my friend and there is no place she could go if my friend can’t watch her anymore. I don’t know what to do.”
-Rita Norquist, Olympia