TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — One cold night and one Facebook post changed everything for a Tallahassee woman living in her car.
- Neighbor Tammie Gail has been living in her car since November after being displaced from her home.
- A post to the Living Tallahassee Facebook group brought immediate help from the community.
- Watch the video below to see how the community's generosity helped Gail when she needed it.
Cold night, kind hearts: Tallahassee community steps in to help woman living in her car
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
A Tallahassee woman who has been homeless since November finds hope and warmth thanks to community support.
I'm Lyric Sloan in Northwest Tallahassee, showing you how one Facebook post on a cold night turned into an outpouring of community support.
The closing of this door marked the loss of a home for Tallahassee neighbor Tammie Gail.
She's had to live in her car since November.
As temperatures dropped, survival became her daily focus, and one cold night made the stakes painfully clear.
"I was told that it was going to be 30 degrees, and in order to stay warm in my car, I needed gas to do that. And I had a little bit of gas, but I knew it wasn't going to make it through the night, so I knew I would need more blankets," Gail said.
With nowhere else to turn, Gail took a leap of faith and reached out to the community through a Facebook group called Living Tallahassee.
She asked for just two blankets and non-perishable food.
Within minutes, her message spread across hundreds of Tallahassee phones, and hope began to arrive.
"Oh, my goodness, people just showed up. I mean, people brought me fruit and canned fruit, fresh fruit, bread, peanut butter crackers," Gail said.
Gail wasn't facing that cold night alone. Before the temperature dropped, the community had already stepped in.
"I asked her about gas. So I took her to the gas station, and I put some gas in her car. And she did ask, I think, on the post about maybe some food that didn't have to be refrigerated, and stuff like that, so I took her to Dollar Tree. And I told her, just get whatever you can get," neighbor Latasha Burke said.
As winter settles in, there will be more cold nights ahead. Burke says moments like this show just how important it is to help, even in the smallest ways.
"That's one of the things like the community doesn't realize. It doesn't take much. Just by giving me, giving them $1, or just by buying that sandwich, taking that sandwich, that might be the only sandwich they eat today. This 50 cents is not going to get that. It may be the 50 cents that gets them the dollar that gets them a bag of chips," Burke said.
And in those small moments, Gail realized something she hadn't before.
"I've got to be the one to pick myself back up, and I've got people who will help me, and I didn't realize that until that night," Gail said.
Gail says it's true when people say you're just one decision or one paycheck away from homelessness, but she says the act of kindness from the community gave her hope that she can get back on her feet.
In Northwest Tallahassee, Lyric Sloan ABC 27.
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