Sick Teacher Is Kicked Out of Her Home – Finds a New One Thanks to 'Miracle Friend'

• Elizabeth Softky, from San Francisco, worked as an elementary school teacher before a diagnosis changed her life.
• Soon after the doctors diagnosed her with cancer, her landlord evicted her.
• Having nowhere to go, Softky found a homeless shelter where she spent some time before moving to a hotel room and meeting a friend, who would alter the course of her life.

While living a life full of opportunities and doing what she loved the most, an elementary school teacher never thought a sudden cancer diagnosis would change her life so significantly. The diagnosis came as a shock, turning her life upside down.

Elizabeth Softky, a resident of San Francisco, had worked as a teacher for a decade and owned the non-profit organization, Jump Into Writing, which helped students polish their creative writing skills.

Besides being a passionate educator, Softky is a former journalist. Like most people working regular jobs, the mother of three never thought she would lose her house and live in a shelter as a homeless woman.

Softky was living her life, unaware that a scary diagnosis would soon change everything. In 2018, the doctors told her she had an advanced form of colon cancer that needed immediate treatment.

How Did Her Life Change after the Diagnosis?

At first, Softky thought undergoing cancer treatment would be nothing short of a challenge, but she soon mustered the courage to go under the knife. She thought all she needed was surgery to remove the tumor, unaware that the worse was yet to come.

A few weeks after the surgery, Softky's doctor recommended undergoing a "super-aggressive chemo regime" to destroy the cancer cells in her body and avoid recurrence. Hoping for the best, Softky followed her doctor's advice, unaware of how her life would soon derail.

The chemotherapy had weakened Softky's immune system, which meant she could easily get sick upon interacting with people. As a result, doctors told her to quit her job because being in a classroom full of students was something she couldn't afford. She said:

"One of my kids could have killed me."

Quitting her job meant Softky had to rely on her limited savings to pay her bills and rent. She soon ran out of money and couldn't pay her rent on time, which made her landlord evict her from the house she had lived in for 14 years.

"I was looking at the reality of nowhere to go, except for sleeping, like, at a bus stop," Softky recalled in an interview with PBS NewsHour. Losing her home was something she had never imagined would happen, but she couldn't do anything to stop it.

After getting evicted, Softky stumbled across a shelter for the homeless that barely had the resources required to rehabilitate people and provide healthcare. However, staying in the shelter was her best bet at the time.

During her stay, Softky applied for jobs, hoping to find an opportunity that would help her get her life back on track. Unfortunately, she didn't get hired, and soon, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world.

During the pandemic, hotels were providing accommodation to people without homes. As a result, Softky and a few others from the shelter moved to hotel rooms where they could live for some time. While Softky felt relieved to have a clean bed and a room, she was still worried about improving her life.

How Did She Get Her Life Back on Track?

During her stay at the hotel, Softky met Joan Scott, a volunteer at Miracle Messages who changed her life. The non-profit organization helped the homeless reconnect with their families or make new friends under the Miracle Friends program.

Soon, Scott and Softky became friends and bonded over phone calls, where Scott shared her cancer story and began to feel better about her situation.

In 2020, the CEO of Miracle Messages launched an online fundraiser to collect money for the homeless. After raising $50,000, he launched a new program, Miracle Money, which gave the homeless $500 monthly for six months.

Softky was one of the people who was chosen for this program and received money that could help her change her life. "I was speechless!" she said about qualifying for the program.

The monthly income allowed Softky to get a house through the Senior Citizen Housing Scheme because it required the applicants to have a steady source of income. Softky said having her own house without the Miracle Money program wouldn't have been possible.

"The Miracle Messages family has been a miracle for me," Softky confessed in her interview. The program selected 14 people to benefit from the monthly income, and half of them found a living space for themselves. After the first successful implementation of the program, the non-profit organization aims to continue helping the homeless through people's generous donations.

Click here to read another story about a poor teacher who lived in a car to save money for his sick wife and soon got a $27,000 check from a student.