July 17, 2008Recommend
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
After a year without wheels, Leatrice Doby was set to receive a car donated to the SARET Charitable Fund in Glen Ellyn.
Instead, she spent that day -- June 24 -- making funeral arrangements for her 16-year-old son, Zamarri, who died two days earlier after collapsing on a basketball court at Plainfield South High School a few minutes into an AAU tournament game.
Zamarri was a forward on the Waubonsie Valley High School team who would have been a junior in the fall.
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Zamarri Doby
Unaware of these circumstances behind Leatrice's delay in accepting the donation, the car's owner simply donated it to a different charitable organization.
That situation didn't sit well with SARET President Chana Bernstein, who turned to the communities that support the charity for help.
"Zamarri and his older sister could not wait to see their mother stress-free again and able to pay bills and buy food without having to wait for rides," Bernstein said.
And Bernstein's account of this story, published in a variety of local newspapers, didn't sit well with Wheaton resident Kim Foltz, whose family had just bought a new car and was wondering what to do with its 1998 Mercury Mountaineer, which had 138,000 miles on it.
"I mean, look at what she's been through," Foltz said. "It's like, how much can one person take?"
So, on Wednesday, July 9, the three women came together in the Foltz family's driveway and brought a little happiness to this otherwise miserable situation.
"It's going to mean a lot to me," said Leatrice before driving off in the SUV she had been given. "I'm going to be able to go to work. I'm going to be able to take care of my business and take care of the kids and doctors appointments and go to the grocery store. Everything."
Doing any of that has been a challenge this past year, as the old Volvo she received four years ago from SARET simply broke down beyond repair, leaving her without transportation and at the bottom of a lengthy waiting list to receive another vehicle from the charity.
During that time, the Doby family sank into a state of poverty due to this transportation nightmare.
Leatrice, who lives in Aurora, found herself spending $60 a day on cab fare to get to and from her job as a security guard at the Menard's on Randall Road in Geneva. She only takes home $80 a day from that job, and her monthly rent is $600.
So ends were not meeting, and the family, which did not qualify for food stamps, sometimes experienced food shortages for lack of transportation to area food pantries.
As if she needed further proof that this world is at times far from fair, there was a hefty pricetag attached to the immeasurable pain of burying her child.
"I've just been trying to pay something to keep the lights on and the phone on, and I'm still trying to get money for my son's headstone," Leatrice said. "I just take it one day at a time, me and my daughter. We just take it one day at a time, and we pray about it and everything."
Leatrice raised money for Zamarri's funeral, but she still owes $700 toward that bill. So now that the Foltz family has set Leatrice up with a car, Bernstein said she is hoping others will work with SARET to cover these costs.
For Leatrice, this sort of help is a pleasant surprise.
"I didn't realize there were so many great people out there," she said.
Comment at
www.foxvalleyvillagessun.com I am hopeful that we can reach out as a community to help one of our own in need. I cannot begin to imagine what it would be like to face the loss of a child and then have to worry about how to pay for his funeral....I am so very sad for her.