“It’s hard to tell my parents: right now, we can’t afford the van designed for disabled people.”
For Maria Romero, staying organized is a matter of life or death. So many rely on her. She has a dad with diabetes. She provides care for him. Her mom needs help navigating the healthcare system (for her dad’s sake). She has co-workers who depend on her at her second job as a culinary employee at Facebook in Fremont. And Maria has brothers who are trying to clean up their lives and sometimes need her at a moment’s notice.
She has a lot to keep organized; not making enough from caregiving only adds more stress to what’s already a busy schedule.
“I’ve been a caregiver for a year now, but the pandemic makes it feel longer. I don’t regret it at all, though. He’s my dad. I love him. He took care of me as a kid, so it feels natural for me to do the same, now that I’m an adult. Plus, my dad is very appreciative. He always thanks me, makes me feel appreciated. It’s a good feeling. I wish I made more money — maybe enough to not need to have two jobs — but I don’t regret taking care of my dad, at all.”
Maria, who lives in Hayward with her parents, began caregiving for her dad, David, after he’d been hospitalized for a fall that partially paralyzed him. David has struggled with Type-2 diabetes for decades, often dealing with high blood pressure symptoms stemming from it. By the time he was hospitalized, a year ago, he couldn’t work anymore.
Maria and her mother were distraught. The family depended on David’s income to help keep bills paid and food on the table. And a few months ago, Maria’s dad had to have his toes amputated, due to further diabetes complications.
“I was really lucky — or blessed, depending on how you want to look at it — to meet the social worker at the hospital that I did. Up until I became an official caregiver, my mom and I were taking care of my dad without any extra financial assistance. We weren’t near poverty, but the struggle was real — still is real. But then the social worker told us about IHSS. I wish I’d heard about it sooner. But, yeah, the social worker told us about IHSS and how we could get a little money for taking care of dad. It wasn’t really enough money to cover everything dad needs, but, at the time, we were grateful for the extra assistance. Looking back on it, now that I think about it, they could have given me more hours to reflect the amount of time I actually care for him, which would have meant more money to help provide care.”
Maria wakes up at 4:30 every morning to start her day. She showers, dresses, eats, and then goes to attend to her dad. Her dad takes several different medications — some for general pain, others for his diabetes — so Maria organizes them for her mom to distribute to her dad during the day. After that, Maria heads out to her second job. Rising gas prices have made her commute more difficult, but Maria powers through the worry. There, at Facebook, Maria spends her eight hour shift on her feet, prepping, cleaning.
Getting by on too little.
Maria gets off of work at 2 PM. After work, Maria does some light grocery shopping; some days, she’ll get supplies for the week, and other times she goes tries to find snacks for her dad to both enjoy and to keep his blood sugar stable. Rising grocery prices have bothered Maria for a little while now, but she knows how to find good deals. When she gets home, Maria administers her dad’s afternoon medications and run errands for him. Currently, Maria and her mom struggle to get their dad around; they want to buy a van designed specifically for disabled people, but they can’t afford it.
“Getting dad around has always been the hardest part. He can’t get up by himself. I wasn’t yet strong enough to get him up by myself. I had to beg my older brothers — who are struggling in their own lives right now — to come and take my dad to the hospital. That’s where being organized came in: I had to not only organize them to come get dad, but then I had to handle the healthcare paperwork and stuff — all while keeping mom and dad calm throughout the whole thing by telling them what I was doing, step by step. I think that’s my special skill as a caregiver: knowing how to keep things flowing, even when bad, chaotic stuff is happening all around me.”
While Maria is grateful to be covered under IHSS, she’s forced to work a second job with little time or energy left to take care of her dad. Maria has hope for the future, though, and dreams of having kids someday. Before that, though, she needs to be able to earn a living without having to work two jobs.
That’s why Maria and other IHSS providers in Alameda County are speaking out and supporting their Union’s Time for $20 campaign to establish a living wage floor in the industry. Learn more at https://www.seiu2015.org/timefor20/.
