In 2016, Hurricane Matthew made landfall on the coast of South Carolina, forcing Shavon Smalls and her son to evacuate. Once the storm passed, they returned home to find their apartment had been broken into and vandalized. Because of the devastation to her community, there was nowhere else for her to go and she and her son were left homeless. They would spend the next two years moving around and staying with friends, all while her son battled sickle cell anemia, a disease he was born with.
“Sickle cell effects the blood system and it can be extremely painful,” Shavon explained. “My son often takes medication to help manage the disease, but we have to be really careful. Exposures to germs at school – even the flu or a common cold – can impact his body way worse than most children and he can end up in the hospital. The pandemic has been especially scary for us.”
While Shavon and her son were homeless, she remained positive and never lost hope that they would end up where they were supposed to be. “I kept telling my son that we were going to be OK and that we could do anything together,” she said. “There were plenty of times that I wanted to give up because my son is sick, and I knew I needed to provide a home for him. I had to try to be strong and keep reassuring him that everything would work out.”