Simone, 21 years old, VA | 4 DAYS WAITING

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The first thing Simone did when she got the keys to her very own apartment was stand in the doorway and cry. It was quiet and small and entirely hers, and after years of never knowing where she would sleep next, she wanted to remember the moment forever. Simone entered foster care as a child and moved through more homes than she can count. Some were kind and some were not, and in all of them she lived with the feeling that her place could be taken away at any time. When she turned 21, she stepped into adulthood without a family to fall back on, but with a stubborn kind of strength. She works at a daycare, where she has a gift for comforting the child having the hardest day because she remembers what that felt like. Simone is saving and studying to become an early childhood teacher so she can be the steady, welcoming grown-up she needed when she was little. She takes enormous pride in her apartment and keeps it tidy and warm. She shares it with her beloved cat, who greets her at the door after every long day and has taught her that a home feels most like home when someone is waiting for you inside it.

Simone’s apartment is the first place she has ever been able to call her own, and she cares for it like the treasure it is. A vacuum cleaner may seem ordinary, but for her it is the difference between hoping her home stays clean and being able to keep it that way. It would help her maintain the fresh, safe space she is building, a place where she can rest after a long day with the children at the daycare and welcome friends she has made along the way. After a childhood of never being sure where she belonged, every part of her home is a source of pride. A vacuum would let her care for her first home and feel proud knowing the place she worked so hard to build is hers to keep.