First, thank you for reaching this page. I am incredibly grateful that you have come this far.
It has been several years since I last celebrated my birthday or hosted my usual fundraiser to mark my special day, and today I'm coming to you with a dream that has quickly become very near and dear to my heart.
I have a dream to send support to one of the most amazing women in the village where I live.
Since the onset of the pandemic and the fundraiser I organized to provide food to some of the most vulnerable families in El Castillo, Filomena has been on my mind. It was during those weekly deliveries that I met her, and I was overwhelmed by her vibrant eyes and endless gratitude.
She lives a simple life - no hot water, failing electricity more often than not, a basic diet, no cell phone, and mostly in solitude. As you imagine what happens with aging, she also faces daily obstacles that make her life more challenging than it needs to be. I want to show my appreciation to Filomena, the grandmother of the rainforest, the single survivor of times truly past in which technology didn't shift our realities.
I aim to raise at least $5,000 to support Filomena's needs - a new electrical meter box, new electrical wiring, ceiling repairs, an ample supply of Ensure, and anything else we can milk out of the budget. Please rest assured that 100% of the funds raised will directly benefit Filomena. (Please also note that this fundraising platform does apply a 'tip' for their services which you can remove during the donation process. Unfortunately, we don't have access to Facebook Fundraisers in Costa Rica, so this is the next best option.)
Below is what I've just written after my afternoon spent with Filomena today.
Please join me in making a positive shift in her life by donating to my birthday fundraiser today!
With love and light,
Travis
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The Story of Filomena Gladys or Gladys Filomena • 14 November, 2022
One of our first questions is about her age, to which she responds, “I don’t really remember. My name is Gladys Filomena Obregon Obregon.”
We consult the civil registry of Costa Rica and find that she is 90 years old, born July 05, 1932. Her name is actually Filomena Gladys, the reverse of what she thought, or remembered. “I guess that’s why some people call me Gladys, and others call me Filomena. I didn’t know that.”
She doesn’t mention much of her early childhood, beyond having many brothers and sisters, and knowing that her father was not, in fact, her father. And the civil registry confirms - only her mother’s name is listed, with the space of father left blank.
As a teenager, she worked in San Jose for many years cleaning homes prior to her family’s relocation to the village of El Castillo.
Her family built the humble home that she lives in today sometime in the early 1960s. It is simple, clean, free of clutter, and in desperate need of repair. It is the oldest home in the village, and the only that was here at the time of Arenal Volcano’s major eruption in 1968. How terrifying it was, she remembers, “Me and my siblings took shelter under the kitchen table when there were tremors.”
Filomena - as she is known, yet a name she finds “ugly” - found herself right at home in the mountains and farmland. She spent most of her days climbing trees, hiking over the mountains to another nearby farm where more family lived, and working the farmland in every way imaginable - milking cows, harvesting oranges, coffee, etc.
Those were different times. There were no neighbors playing loud music. There were no cars. There was no electricity. There was no internet or cellphones. There was no television. There was simply the land. Yet here she is today, the eldest citizen in the village of El Castillo, surrounded entirely by the list of modern technologies above, and yet she continues to live as simply as she did in the 1960s.
As a young woman, a middle-aged woman, and even as a senior, she absolutely loved to climb trees. She shares a funny story about Maria del Carmen, her neighbor and my friend, with whom I made today’s visit.
“When you were a baby, I climbed over the mountain to visit your parents at their farm. I loved to be in the trees… like a monkey. You were less than a year old I remember, and your mother was breastfeeding you under the tree where I was picking oranges and throwing them down on the ground. And I told her, ‘Ninfa, get out of here’ because I didn’t want to hit the baby!”
At the age of 75 she was in a tree collecting fruit when she fell, breaking her hip. With a lack of access to proper medical care, it went untreated and she missed the timeframe in which she could have, should have, had a hip replacement. And yet, at the age of 90, she continues to walk about, but she no longer climbs trees.
One night, Maria heard her yelling from across the small street and went running over to Filomena’s house with her family. They found her - fearless - banging away with her cane at a massive boa that had coiled around her small dog. They finally got her settled down and Maria’s husband worked to free the dog.
There is no hot water in her home. The ceiling was recently torn down for fear that the electrical exposed wires would ignite the entire building. The remaining roof is full of bats, finding dishes on the table covered in plastic to prevent them from being contaminated by guano. There is no light in her bedroom, for the lightbulb socket exploded and when they tried to replace it “there was a lot of smoke.”
The electrical meter outside of her box is nearly as ancient as her home, and needs to be replaced. It is actually illegal, but the electrical company has overlooked it for far too long in recognizing her age and the cost it entails.
The electrical wires from the box on the street to her home, and inside her home, are entirely exposed. Imagine it: exposed wires, metal roof, wood walls, in the rainforest. It is miraculous that nothing catastrophic has happened.
Recently there was a local fundraiser to buy her a new mattress. Some of the elementary and high school kids ran a drive to provide a small collection of food for her. She has occasional visitors, but claims, “Most people dismiss me now that I am old. They don’t invite me to their homes,” she says, making a contorted face of disgust that I know you can picture if you imagine a movie in which an elitist Beverly Hills mom reacts to the odor of a homeless person.
And yet the one thing that finally springs to mind that she wants, and prays for most, is Ensure. Yes, the bottles of meal replacement drink that are full of vitamins and nutrients. When she was terribly sick and in bed for nearly 5 months, “It was almost the only thing I had to eat the entire time.”
For 90 years in a body that saw its fair share of manual labor and accidents over nearly the course of a century, she’s in surprisingly good health. The biggest issue is that, as is the case with many people as they age, they’re thought of and on people’s minds when they’re unwell or get sick, and then they’re forgotten.
There is so much on my mind as I write these words after spending my afternoon with this beautiful soul. The wisdom that she holds, her connection to nature, her strength and ferociousness to conquer life. It is all evident in her eyes and her words, no matter how frail the latter may seem as they slowly surface past her lips.
Her arms are the width of my fingers - I can almost see the blood pumping through her veins. It’s as if she is disappearing before my eyes, and I’m heartbroken to think of the stories, the knowledge, the truth that will go with her.
And yet, I am motivated to do something for her now. Before it’s too late.
If you are able, please consider a donation as this is very, very dear to my heart and soul.
With love and gratitude,
Travis
Fundraiser Link: https://fundrazr.com/travisday
