Helping Laura Get Through A Lung Infection

Giving Kitchen helps all kinds of food service workers in all kinds of crises, from minor setbacks to life-altering events. In some cases, those minor setbacks and life-altering events all happen to the same person. Laura Lashley is one of those people.

Within minutes of speaking with her, you can tell she doesn’t give up easily – nor does she dwell on the past, on what could have been, on what should have been. She is a proud and protective mother to her three children; a fierce mama diving headfirst into each day with the type of conviction and determination that feels almost impossible after living through a full year of this pandemic.

Laura began working in food service at the age of 15. She worked her way through a few fast food chains, into table service at a pancake house, and finally at the steakhouse where she’s worked as a server and bartender since 2013.

Fast-forward to January 2021. Laura discovers that her 13-year-old daughter has COVID-19. Five days later, she finds out that she has it, too. Thankfully, Laura’s daughter recovers quickly, but Laura is not so fortunate. Because of her arthritis medication, Laura has a compromised immune system, to the point where she can’t even receive a live vaccine because her body has such a hard time fighting off illness. Add that to her asthma, and it’s a perfect storm for a severe case of COVID-19. “I was out of work for about a month. I was in and out of the hospital. Because my immune system is already weakened, my body wasn’t fighting it like it should.”

The nurses tell her that she has bronchitis – a lung infection – but that it could quickly become pneumonia, which is a lot more damaging to the lungs, and a lot harder to recover from.

It was in the midst of this battle with COVID-19 that Laura asked for help from Giving Kitchen. She wasn’t thinking about missing a few shifts, or the inconvenience of a late utility bill. She was thinking about who would take care of her children, and how they would survive without her. She was hoping that the financial assistance from Giving Kitchen would give her family “a little bit of help” in case she didn’t survive. “I used to have a little nest egg, but during this pandemic, it’s not like we’re making that extra money that we used to make. It’s not like we have that savings and that fall back plan – we just don’t.” Giving Kitchen was able to step in and help cover her costs of living while she was out of work battling this illness.

Before the pandemic, Laura had an emergency fund. As 2020 went on and the pandemic got worse and worse, that emergency fund disappeared quickly. In that matter-of-fact way that she has, Laura recalled thinking, “I hope I don’t die. What are my kids gonna do?” She asked her boyfriend, “Can you see if they could do a five-dollar funeral for me? Buy some gasoline, light a match, and call it a day?”

The nurses told her to fight, and fight she did. “They told me, ‘the next step is putting you on a ventilator, but we don’t want to do that because most people don’t make it out. You have to fight this, you have to give it your all.’”

So Laura fought, and she won. After nearly a month of illness, though, her body was still weak, and she couldn’t perform at her job the way she had before. “My first day back to work, I was only an hour into my shift and I told my manager, ‘I can’t do this. I just can’t.’ And he said, ‘I’ll help you, don’t worry. We got you.” Her team had her back as she regained her strength. Because of the compassion and support of her teammates, and the financial assistance she received from Giving Kitchen, Laura didn’t have to worry about operating at peak performance right away. This type of community care is exactly how Giving Kitchen came to be – born of food service workers wanting to help each other.

Overcoming the lingering effects of COVID-19 wasn’t the last challenge for Laura and her family. While she was still recovering, she noticed that something was wrong with her 16-month-old son, Donovan. “I thought maybe he just ate something that didn’t agree with him, but the diarrhea wouldn’t stop. I tried everything, and finally I took him to the hospital.” The diarrhea became so severe that Donovan was excreting blood. She recalled telling the medical team, “Y’all need to figure out what the hell is going on with him, because I am not leaving this hospital until y’all figure this sh*t out.”

Laura and Donovan in the hospital

After cultures, X-rays, and ultrasounds, Donovan was diagnosed with salmonella. “I have never seen anything in my life do this to somebody. It’s so hard when someone is so little and they are so sick. It’s just the absolute worst.” Donovan was in the hospital – with Laura by his side – for one full week before getting discharged, but he has yet to fully recover from the salmonella poisoning. “He’s doing great and seems like he’s moving forward, and then he regresses. I’m scared.” The last thing Laura should have to worry about when her child is sick is how she’s going to pay her bills. Giving Kitchen was again able to provide financial assistance for Laura to help pay her family’s living expenses while she missed work caring for her sick child.

Donovan in his hospital crib

Laura knew she could ask for help from Giving Kitchen because GK helped her all the way back in 2017. She had surgery to alleviate the arthritic damage to her knee, and one of her managers at the steakhouse where she works told her about Giving Kitchen and encouraged her to ask for help.

Because she asked for help back then, she didn’t have to burn through her emergency fund, so she had a larger safety net when the pandemic hit and her income was slashed. This is why Giving Kitchen exists: to help food service workers find stability now so they can stand up to the bigger things later.

“I always do stuff on my own. I was taught that I couldn’t rely on anybody else. I was Plans A through Z.” Hopefully, Laura and her family are all on the road to recovery – physically, emotionally, and financially. But whatever obstacle gets in her way, Laura can rely on GK to have her back. Giving Kitchen isn’t just here once; we’re always here.

To other food service workers in crisis – big or small – Laura says, “Anyone that needs help: don’t be ashamed to admit it. Once you get it, especially from people that are actually willing to help you, it’s a feeling like never before. There are people out there willing to help you, even when you feel like you have nobody.”