In Kansas City, Mo., A Woman Helps Her Neighbors
Listen Now [3 min 33 sec] add to playlist
EnlargeDawn Mosley, 41, cherishes her home and the neighbors that she has found in Kansas City, Mo. Mosley has fought through tough times in her own life moving from place to place.
Dawn Mosley's neighbors look to her as a friend whom they can trust to baby-sit their children. They say that they look up to her as a second mom. David Gilkey/NPR
Monique Anderson Gates, 28, was able to get back on her feet after an accident with the help of her friend and neighbor Dawn Mosley.
All Things Considered, September 2, 2008 · In a quiet neighborhood of single-family homes in Kansas City, Mo., a 41-year-old woman named Dawn Mosley has supported her neighbors through bouts of illness, joblessness and depression.
When her friend LaShonda Clemons got sick with fluid built up around her spine, Mosley helped her out with her kids and with meals. Clemons, a 33-year-old nurse's assistant, did not have health insurance and did not qualify for disability.
"Everywhere I went, they turned their backs," Clemons said. But Mosley "really stepped in as a mom to my kids and to me. Even though I'm so strong-minded and want to get up and take care of myself and don't want to depend on nobody, she'd fuss at me. 'Sit down, I'll come and do it.' "
Mosley and Clemons are two women NPR met on a road trip known as "Take Me To Your Leader." The trip is an attempt to get away from the hype surrounding the political conventions in Denver and St. Paul, Minn., — and to talk to people from Chicago to Phoenix about whom they see as their leaders.
Monique Anderson Gates, another one of Mosley's friends, has had her own struggles.
A drunk driver hit Gates' car and ended her pregnancy. She was out of work and dealing with a divorce. At one point, she even considered ending her own life. She wasn't sure where to turn. She thought about the government but was denied food stamps. She thought of her friends, like Mosley.
Mosley eventually found Gates work renovating houses. And she pushed Gates to return to a two-year vocational program. At 28, Gates is graduating this fall.
Mosley says that she has been inspired to reach out to her friends because of what she has been through in her own life.
"When I was living in Atlanta I was homeless, I was living in an abandoned house," she said. "And they had a walnut tree. That's how I survived. I ate walnuts. I'm a survivor."
Mosley also fought drug addiction, but she finally cleaned up a decade ago after landing in the Midwest to be with her mother, who was dying of cancer.
"I'm a true believer that you go through things for a reason," she said. "God lets you go through things so you can learn from them."
She says she's touched that her friends see her as a mentor — she never realized that they saw her in such a light.
"I didn't even know they felt like that, I really didn't, because we never talk about nothing like that," she said. "They know if they need me, I'm there."
