This post was originally published on St. Louis American
By Sylvester Brown Jr.
Ramona Brown, 47, clutched the box of Kleenex tightly in her left hand as she spoke through halting breaths. She dabbed at her eyes and nose, often with a single, crumpled, soggy tissue as she recounted a series of events that invaded her already vulnerable life in 2020.
“Life…sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down. But I refuse to go down.”
– Ramona Brown, on her feelings about her post-pandemic future
When the global coronavirus pandemic began to spread in March of that year, Brown was already battling the epidemic of violence surrounding the house she had rented in Dellwood for eight years. Drug activity and violence had punctuated her neighborhood. At one point, she counted 46 bullet holes in her home.
As a single mother and home-care health worker, it was tough making ends meet. By the end of 2020, Brown’s landlord had threatened to evict her and her four school-aged children.
“Everything shut down,” she said, recalling how her job was no longer sending caregivers to clients’ homes because of the pandemic. She was homeless for a while until government stimulus money allowed her and the kids to stay at the Comfort Inn in Hazelwood.
After the stimulus money ran out, Brown and her children stayed at a temporary emergency service agency for about two weeks. It was overcrowded, and she was asked to leave. But she was told of another place she and her family could find lodging.
So, in July 2021, Brown turned to Room at the Inn in Bridgeton, a shelter for women, children, and families who are homeless.