Hey yall, I’ve started this fundraiser for my long time friend and chosen family, Rachel Cook, who has been facing multiplying obstacles that have put her in crisis. Last fall, Rachel moved her whole life across the country from Ohio to Florida, to care for her elderly mom with dementia, arriving in a new city without knowing anyone. 

If you know Rachel, you know she spent her life outside, her way of being, and earning a living, has been as a farmer, in community, permaculture groups, valuing above all resource sharing and education. Over the last 15 years she focused on her herbal medicine craft, completed her masters, and is in progress of receiving her registered clinician status.

This past winter, Rachel connected with local farmers, growers of medicines and native plants, and farmers markets in her new community. Her vision was to collaborate with these folks to grow medicines of this region for her community. But come May, she suddenly couldn’t go outside. Rachel has a health condition in which she has a life threatening reaction to the extreme Florida heat, humidity and sun. Spending time outside, even a walk to the park, is no longer accessible, and this has cut her off from herself and her professional vision.

So she went to work inside. The job Rachel found and was hopeful about, was for the retirement home that her mom is living in, but it was quickly revealed to have an abusive boss and administration, and Rachel faced daily verbal harassment and manipulation. When she injured her hip at work so that walking was excruciating, compounded by the abusive workplace environment, the process of trying to get the care she needed became a nightmare. While waiting for care, in debilitating pain, Rachel faced continued abuse from the administration as they spun the situation so as not to be liable in the workers compensation claim. Ultimately she was harassed into self resignation without compensation, losing her only source of income. 

Since then, doctors visits have been numerous, her pain is now diagnosed as chronic, and with social workers, Rachel is currently in the process of getting on disability. A big part of Rachel’s weekly routine is devoted to supporting her elderly mom with dementia, but it is hard to balance her mom’s needs with her own.

Rachel currently does not have enough funds to pay for her rent, groceries, bills, and her car is in dire need of repair. The physical and mental stress of being a caregiver for her mom, being in a new city without any support system, going through workplace abuse, navigating chronic pain, heat illness, looking for any work, and the lengthy process to get on disability, all on top of having no money has put Rachel in crisis. I am hoping that together we can raise some funds to help alleviate some of the stress in Rachel’s life. 

Having enough money to pay for basic needs, rent, food, bills, and overdue car work, would allow there to be more room and capacity in her life to continue the difficult tasks of securing a stable income source, healing, caring, and resourcing for herself and her mom. Hopefully too, it will help open up more capacity to find community and a way back to herself as a cool plant medicine lady :)))) If you know Rachel, you know that at her core she is bursting full of art and play and contagious passion for what she loves, and I hope that we can support by taking a load off her back and opening up a bit more breathing room. Hopefully disability will come through this fall, but we all know how government processes are. Rachel is in crisis and needs our help right now, and I hope that together we can support her during this time ❤️