How One Pharmacist Helped Another Out of Homelessness
On this special Thanksgiving episode, Tim Ulbrich welcomes Melissa Akacha, a pharmacist that helped rally her community to bring another pharmacist out of homelessness. This is a story of generosity, of being aware of your surroundings, and extending a helping hand to those that encounter misfortunes that could happen to any one of us.
About Today’s Guest
Melissa Akacha was resides and works as a community pharmacist in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. She studied pharmacy and graduated from the University of Science in 2004. Melissa is divorced and has two daughters, Ava (11) and Emma (8) and is also mom to Paris and Milan, their two French bulldogs. In her free time, Melissa enjoys coaching cheerleading, crafting, watching movies, cooking and home projects.
Melissa has compassion for all living things and believes we all have a purpose. She trusts her instincts and takes time to slow down and enjoy moments throughout the day. Her children have taught her how to love in a way that is simple and pure.
Summary
Melissa Akacha, a community pharmacist in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, shares her story of rallying her community to bring another pharmacist out of homelessness.
Melissa first saw Lynn when she was taking one of her daughters to school. Lynn was living in her car with two large dogs in the Target parking lot. When Melissa saw her, she knew that something wasn’t right. She approached Jen, her friend, neighbor and former social worker, to let her know about the situation. Together, they decided they would approach Lynn and see if she needed help. In the meantime, they posted about Lynn on an app called Nextdoor to see if anyone in the community had seen her or knew what was going on.
Melissa and Jen walked up to Lynn’s car and asked her, “Is everything ok?” Lynn couldn’t roll down her window or start the car because her battery had died. She said that she was fine, but the two knew something deepers was going on. They offered to come back later in the evening with pizza so they could talk and help her figure out a plan.
When Melissa and Jen went back, they learned that Lynn had lost her husband died suddenly and that she was faced with a lot of medical issues and bills and felt embarrassed to be homeless as she was a former pharmacist. She didn’t reach out to anyone to ask for help, but she said that Melissa and Jen were the first ones to ask if she was ok.
A group of 15 community members joined together to help Lynn get her life back on track. Lynn now lives in an apartment with her two dogs and has a community to support her.
Mentioned on the Show
- YFP Planning
- WBUR: A Former Pharmacist Was Forced Into Homelessness, Then Her Community Stepped Up to Help by Yasmin Amer
- Nextdoor
- Lynn Shutzman’s Go Fund Me Link
- YFP Facebook Group
Episode Transcript
Tim Ulbrich: Hey, what’s up, everybody? Tim Ulbrich here, and happy Thanksgiving on behalf of the team at Your Financial Pharmacist. I hope everyone is having a great day with family celebrating this important holiday and reflecting upon everything that we are thankful for in our lives. This week, we have a special episode for you highlighting an incredible story of generosity involving a former pharmacist that was forced into homelessness. And then her community, led in part by another pharmacist, stepped up to help. That pharmacist that stepped up to help is Melissa Akacha, who we welcome on the show today. Melissa, welcome and thank you for taking the time to come onto the Your Financial Pharmacist podcast.
Melissa Akacha: Thank you so much for having me, Tim.
Tim Ulbrich: Before we jump into learning more about this story, tell us a little bit about yourself, why you wanted to become a pharmacist, where you went to school, and where you currently work and live.
Melissa Akacha: Sure. Well, I’ve always loved medicine, pharmacy, and my father actually was the one who had a great relationship with our local pharmacist and kind of sent me in that direction. I went to University of the Sciences, graduated in 2004, and since then have been working in retail. Right now, I reside in King of Prussia, and I’m fortunate to work in King of Prussia as well in the community.
Tim Ulbrich: And I sense that just based on the story, which we’ll get into here in a little bit, the sense of community and rallying around somebody that’s in need, I had a sense through reading that story that you’ve been a part of working and living in this community for some time. Is that true?
Melissa Akacha: Yes. Yeah, I actually grew up here and pretty much stayed in the area. Love King of Prussia, love the community, had a great experience with the schools here. And now I have two daughters, and they go to the same schools that I did.
Tim Ulbrich: That’s awesome.
Melissa Akacha: Yeah, so it’s great.
Tim Ulbrich: So this story really I think is a story of life’s unexpected turns and misfortunes that really could happen to any one of us. And here, it just happened to be a former pharmacist, Lynn Schutzman, that had found herself living in her car for two years, homeless. And from the article on WEUR 90.9 NPR, “After 43 years as a pharmacist, Lynn could have never imagined starting her days like this. In the morning, she’d go to McDonald’s to wash up and then drive around.” The story goes on to say, “That was the lowest point in my life. I had no dog food. I had just emptied the last bottle of water into the dog’s bowl, so I had nothing to drink. I was very upset because I realized I would have to surrender the dogs because I couldn’t feed them that night.” And I think that, Melissa, that many listening may be wondering, how is it possible for a pharmacist to become homeless? So tell us a little bit more about Lynn’s story and how she got to the point of ultimately living in her car for a couple years.
Melissa Akacha: Right. Yeah, Lynn was — unfortunately had many health issues. Well, rewinding back, she had lost her husband. He was only in his 40s, he died suddenly. After that, her life kind of started to fall apart. She had cancer, she had kidney problems, she was in and out of the hospital, she was wheelchair-bound for quite some time and was unable to work. She unfortunately had with medical bills, and also not a lot of — she wasn’t able to have children, so she didn’t have that family support that a lot of us are fortunate to have during those financial times when you need some help. She did not have that. And because she was a pharmacist in the community, a mentor to so many, she actually was just really embarrassed to be in her situation. And she still stayed in the community. She had a beautiful home in King of Prussia, and she still stayed in the same area and went to see some doctors. Nobody knew that Lynn was homeless. She kept in contact with some people, but she didn’t share. She was embarrassed because she was professional and she saw herself as a failure. And she probably, she was ashamed to ask for help.
Tim Ulbrich: Sure. Yeah, it makes sense. I think about your role as a community pharmacist and many others that are listening, and I think you become very much a pillar of the community, especially to those patients that you serve that come to see you, you know, every other week or every month. And people are often coming to you and looking up to you as a role model and looking for advice. As you mentioned and as the article highlights, Lynn was really trying to go unnoticed, didn’t want her previous patients and people in the community to see that she was homeless and living out of her car. But — but — you noticed her and you noticed something that was wrong. So when did you see Lynn? And what went through your mind when you saw her?
Melissa Akacha: Well, in the mornings before I go to work, I have two daughters and on my way to take my oldest to school, I’ll go at Starbucks and go through the Target parking lot. And a couple days, maybe it was about two days, I would see a car parked and there was a woman sitting inside. And I noticed her car was full to the brim of stuff, clothes, it looked like paper towels, and I saw an older lady sitting there. And I thought maybe she’s on break. I wasn’t really sure. But the second day, it was maybe the second or third day when I drove by, I looked at my daughter, and I said, “I just have this feeling I need to go check on this lady.” That’s it. I really don’t know how to describe it. It was just a feeling where I felt I need to check on her. And just having with the pharmacy background, the first thing I was thinking is dementia, maybe she’s confused, maybe she’s lost, maybe her family doesn’t know where she is. Something was just off about the situation. And I dropped my daughter off to school that day and I was with my best friend and neighbor, Jen Husband. And she has a social worker background. And I was telling her about the situation, and I said, us being the two nosy ladies we are, we said, “Let’s go up there together and see what’s going on.” And talking with Jen, my other daughter mentioned that when she was on a walk with her friends, she noticed this woman also. And she said she had two larger dogs in the car. So that right there was an indication that this woman is living in her car. And when Jen and I approached Lynn that day, she could not open the window, and she couldn’t turn the car on. She had no gas, and the battery died. So we spoke with her maybe like 2 inches of the window being cracked, and we asked her, you know, “Are you OK? Do you need help?” And she said, “No, I’m OK.” And we said, “No, we don’t think you are. And will you allow us to help you?” And she kind of gave us a look like, yeah, I’ve been down this road before. And I said, “You know what? There’s a lot of good people in this world. And through social media, we’re going to rally them together. And we’re going to be back later today.” I had to work that afternoon, and I promised her, I said, “We’re going to come back tonight and bring our children. And we’re going to have pizza together. And we’re going to talk, and we’re going to come up with some plan.” And as silly as it may sound, I wanted Lynn to trust us and our intention.
Tim Ulbrich: Yes. Yep.
Melissa Akacha: And that’s why I wanted to come back and just have dinner together and sit in the parking lot with our kids and just talk to her and let her know that our intentions are pure, and we’re not going to take advantage. I didn’t know what happened, how she got here. That day, very important that we were just talking about where she worked. And she said, “I’m a pharmacist.” And I said, “Really?” And I thought, I still in my head thought, oh, OK, she’s probably crazy. Maybe she’s — and then she started saying names. She said, “I worked for CVS.” And she started saying so many names that I knew. And it’s just impossible. And when she said that, then she said, “I went to University of the Sciences.” And I said, “Oh my gosh, I did too.” And she, her face, when Lynn spoke about pharmacy, her face lit up. She loves pharmacy. She loved her job. She loved being a mentor to students. She loves telling stories. She worked at a lot of different places, and she’s just a great, vivid storyteller. That was a really special part of her life. And that day, I went to work, and I called the store where she had claimed to work at. And that pharmacist, I said, “Do you know Lynn Schutzman?” And I told her where I found her, and that pharmacist just started crying. “Melissa, please, this woman is so generous. Generous beyond words. And she’s always been a giver for everyone. And she would always buy everyone gifts on holidays and never accept anything and tell students to save their money. And she lost her husband and kept working and always said she was OK and never asked for help.” And she said, “Please help this lady.” And I’d never forget it. I just had chills. I thought to myself, wow, this is someone who really, really deserves being helped. Just the way she was described, I thought, wow. What are the chances that I would have came across someone and had this very, very similar background? And personally, in my life, a lot of people would say, “How can a pharmacist” — and I’ve had to answer this question because once we started doing fundraising, many people would say, “How could a pharmacist be homeless?” And they would Google salaries and say, “How could that happen?” And myself, I knew it could happen.
Tim Ulbrich: Sure.
Melissa Akacha: Because I a couple years ago went through an awful divorce and if I didn’t have support, I could be in that situation. I was a paycheck away from that situation. And overnight, my life changed. And that could have me if I did not have family. And there was plenty of times I was embarrassed. Here I was, self-sufficient, and then overnight, the expenses are enormous and it’s embarrassing. So life throws a lot of different things to a lot of people, and it’s really important to prepare. I didn’t prepare because I thought, oh, I’m in my 30s, I don’t have to worry about anything, and what’s going to happen? And I wish I did more. And so I saw myself in Lynn a lot. And I personally was very, very draw to her because of that.
Tim Ulbrich: It’s such a good reminder I think for many of us, many listening, of why we went into this profession to begin with, to help people without judgment and to see need where need is, that need needs to be met, and I really respect your ability to just be aware. You know, I think I’d feel guilty that in life’s busyness of work and with young kids and running from one thing to the next, do we even have margin in the day that we can see those needs that are presented to us probably every day that we just may not even be aware of and then to be able to follow through and follow up on those. But to follow up in a way that doesn’t cast judgment. I mean, I think that it’s easy for people to maybe hear this story and sympathize and empathize with Lynn and be able to rally around her, somebody who was a helper to others in the community and also a pharmacist. But you didn’t know any of that before you initially decided to engage and to step in. And I think that’s great. And one of the articles, or one of the quotes from the article that really stood out to me is when Lynn says, “You feel like somewhere, you had to have failed. You accomplished all of this, but now, here you are in the gutter, and you don’t want people to know. You don’t want to ask for help.” And I think it’s such a good reminder to ask how you can help others or ask how somebody is doing. You never know where that conversation can go. So tell me, Melissa, a little bit more how the rest of the community got involved. So you identified this need, you begin to build that trust and relationship over a meal and having pizza — and I’m going to ask you in a little bit how you engaged your daughters and you alluded to that a little bit and the impact that that’s had — but the community specifically. How did you and your friend Jen get the community involved? And what was the response from the community?
Melissa Akacha: So the first thing we did was when we went on an app called NextDoor, and that’s a site that people in the community, they post things, everything from something they’re trying to sell to “I need a mechanic, can anyone recommend something like that?” And I’ve used that site before, and we posted on there saying that there was a homeless lady living in Target parking lot, and she needs our help. And I had no idea, Jen and I had no idea what response we were going to get. And I was working that day, and you know, we had said on there that she is unable at this time to get out because of her car battery, and she began getting I would say hundreds and hundreds of dollars of gift cards, food, water, dog food, there were veterinarians that came, dogsitters that came. That night, when we went back, she had — there was just random people coming all — like cars and cars of children, family, pet lovers, and Lynn could be — I understand now because she kept saying, I’m just overwhelmed. There was a time I thought, wow, is she upset?
Tim Ulbrich: Sure.
Melissa Akacha: And she just said, “I’m overwhelmed with love. I’m overwhelmed. I can’t sleep, I can’t talk. I’m just overwhelmed.” And now, I get that because I’ve had plenty of moments that I just was on a high and couldn’t sleep and just in awe of what people were doing. And sometimes, people were coming and they would just give her, they gave her something home-cooked and just kind words or a card. All sorts of things to the point that night, she said, “I don’t have room in my car anymore.” And we actually took some things out because she had no room. And we said to her that night, we said, “Listen, we are going to — we need some time, we’re going to plan this. But this is the last night, we give you our word, that you will be in your car.” And Jen and I went that night, and we had a big talk, and we were seeing a lot of donations and a lot of people were saying, “We want to give. How can we give?” And all these suggestions. And we knew that so many people wanted to help, and we weren’t expecting it. So we needed to organize it. And we set up a GoFundMe and a Facebook page, and people began donating through there. Although there was some backlash because there was some negative things that happened before with GoFundMe, but we were thinking that was going to be an issue, but clearly, it wasn’t.
Tim Ulbrich: Sure.
Melissa Akacha: And we got her in a hotel with some funds immediately the next day. And then we had to think of our long-term goals, getting her healthy. She could barely walk at that point. She had a big ulcer in her leg and getting her wound care — there was a lot of stuff we had to do. So we kicked about — I think there was about 15 or 16 people from the contacts in NextDoor, between that and Facebook that we began to trust, Jen and I, and we had a meeting at our home and we delegated. We had one mechanic come and take care of all her car issues. We had another woman come handle all the dog walking because these were dogs that were bigger dogs, a Beagle and a Sheltie, and they needed exercise and getting introduced again, socializing because they were in a car two years. We had a woman take care of that. We had someone, we had a couple ladies help with her financing, seeing what we could do. So we had — that was really helpful. We all, everyone came together. We talked that night, and everyone kind of split up and did their thing. And we just got her life in order. And it was beautiful. We finally found a apartment complex, we definitely wanted her to be in King of Prussia because now she has friends and family. And she needs long-term support. And we need her. Everyone needs a Lynn in their life. She’s just an amazing lady, and we needed to be close with her. So she is in the area. And getting that apartment together, that was one of the most emotional things because so we had this place and we had lists of donations and people were purchasing new things and donating items, everything from forks to toilet paper to cleaning supplies to beds. Her place in about nine hours was completely furnished, repainted, decorated. It is such a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful apartment. Everyone came together, and there was maybe I bet 20-25 people just coming in and out that day, putting furniture together, painting. And that night, when Lynn came through the door, she’d said that day, she said, “You know what? You guys just do your thing. I’m tired.” And we thought, OK, we’re really going to surprise her. And now, this was a woman who had traveled a lot, I mean, all of us, we can think of so many possessions that we have that mean stuff to us. Lynn had nothing. She even had to sell her wedding ring, just whatever she could fit in the car, and that was basically some clothes, dog stuff, dog bed, and water. And her diploma was all chewed up. So we even had a copy of her diploma, we had what was engraved in her wedding ring, which she had mentioned. We wrote that down and someone had a beautiful plaque, had that printed. We had a lot of, we tried to personalize it with a lot of things that she had lost in the moves and losing her — that meant a lot to her.
Tim Ulbrich: That was an incredible video that I think was linked to in the WBUR article of her walking into the apartment and just an incredible moment of seeing all that generosity come to fruition. And we’re going to link to our community in our show notes of the GoFundMe campaign as well as the Facebook page. I know we have a community that is generous and wants to be a part of giving in their own communities or even in situations like this. So we’re going to make sure to link to that. One of the things, Melissa, that you said that really stands out to me is that you mentioned before — I think it was the last thing, I think you said before, it was going to be the last night she stayed in her car, there was people coming, giving all types of things. And some were just coming to express that they were caring for her or thinking about her, others were actually bringing more tangible items, and I’m sure that was to all different degrees of how people were able to contribute. And I think that’s such a great reminder that I think giving, while financial giving is certainly an important part of giving, there’s many other ways that we can all give and contribute in our communities. And that could be time, that could be facilitating other people’s that maybe have the monetary means, it could be contributing financially, but I think there’s so much opportunity to give if we can just slow down and see that opportunity that is in front of us. Now, one of the things, Melissa, that really, really stood out to me as a father of four young boys where my wife and I are really trying to instill a mindset of gratitude and giving is in the WBUR article, there’s a photo of you and your two daughters. And I can’t help but think of the impact this story, as you’ve already alluded to their involvement and your role modeling of generosity and giving and the impact that that has had on them. Can you talk more about how you have included and taught your girls about giving and generosity throughout this story and this journey?
Melissa Akacha: Yes, well, the girls have, they have been with me through every step of the way, through cleaning out the car that night, which was a big project to moving to painting, and they’ve loved it. And they actually — it’s funny, every person with a messy car now, the kids nudge me and say, “Mom, I think they need help!” So they just, they really want to — they loved, loved, loved helping. And they had a lot of questions too, you know, as children. How could this happen? Where’s her family? And so I mean, I’ve tried to be as transparent as possible and also age-appropriate. But I really am so thankful that they got to experience all this and see — they would ask me, why are these people, why are they coming all day? And how do you know them? And I don’t know them. I don’t know these people, and they are coming all day because they’re good people and they want to help, and there are good people in this world. And we need that, we all need to hear that because there’s so much negativity.
Tim Ulbrich: Yes.
Melissa Akacha: And many people — one thing that struck me is that many people that were helping, sometimes they would just start crying that day when we were painting and decorating everything, they would just cry because they would say, “Oh my God, you have no idea how my heart needs this right now,” because look at all these people coming in. And it is, it’s overwhelming. I sometimes right after that, I just couldn’t even talk about it because it was just — it was overwhelming to just see so many people. We couldn’t even answer. I mean, we literally couldn’t get a committee here at our house because it was too much for us — too many people wanted to help. And we needed to just organize it. And Jen and I were not expecting this at all. So it really changed our lives. Many people came up to me and said, I walked past her. I drove past her, and I didn’t stop. But now I’m going to stop, and I’m going to ask someone if something’s wrong, are you OK, can I help you? And Lynn did tell me, she said, “You know, I didn’t go out of my way asking,” she’s like, “But you guys were the first people that asked, can I help you?”
Tim Ulbrich: Wow. Wow.
Melissa Akacha: And a lot of people have approached me and said that, “Yeah, we saw her at the park. We saw her washing up in the bathroom, and I didn’t say anything.” And you know, also we have to use caution. So I do understand why some people would be hesitant or the situation, but I think the takeaway message is sometimes just take an extra step because our — my gut that day just told me, you’ve got to check on her. And I am so glad I did. And I now try to incorporate that in my life just little things, asking people if I can help them or smiling or how are you? And my kids, they do the same. And it’s been a very rewarding thing that I’m thankful I got that experience to meet her and also to see that in life, see just abundance of good people. People love hearing this story because they like hearing good things. They really do.
Tim Ulbrich: Exactly. Yeah. I think in a time where there’s so much negativity, I mean, I’m grateful. I don’t know you personally, but your story has inspired me and is just a great reminder of being aware, being intentional, asking is everything OK? How can I help? And I think that will be the same for our community as well. So thank you for your willingness to share. And let me end on this quote from the article that really, I think just brought it home for me. It says, “None of this was part of Lynn’s original plan. She did everything right: the right education, the right job, the right marriage. Still, there was so much misfortune outside of her control. Misfortune that could have happened to anyone. She thinks about others in that same situation, and she hopes all of us can step up to ask our neighbors a simple, life-changing question, is everything OK?” So as we take a minute to reflect upon this incredible of generosity on this Thanksgiving Day, we are hopeful, I am hopeful that this is an opportunity for you, for me, as individuals to reflect on opportunities for giving, for generosity, and for being more aware of our surroundings and furthermore, how we as a community can do the same. You know, Anne Frank is quoted as saying, “No one has ever become poor by giving.” And we have a vision for the YFP community to be a generous group and to inspire one another to work towards achieving financial freedom in part to be in a better position to give to others. So again, on behalf of the YFP team, happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones, and Melissa, to you and your family as well. And thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show.
Melissa Akacha: Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
Current Student Loan Refinance Offers
[wptb id="15454" not found ]Recent Posts
[pt_view id=”f651872qnv”]
