I was a farmworker in the Central Valley. In 1978, when I was 22, I was in a car accident that severed my spinal cord. I was left a quadriplegic. After I got out of the hospital I lived in a Davis convalescent home for seven years. It was awful.
I spoke no English,and if you don't know the language, you don't count in a place like that. If you don't speak the language you are a nobody. I had to learn English to get out of the hole.
With help I made it into a transitional living center, a duplex,and later was able to move into my own apartment. I control my wheelchair with my mouth and type one letter at a time with my mouth.I need an attendant to do everything else for me. Cleaning, feeding, bathing, even turning the lights on and off in my bedroom. I have an attendant with me 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In 1988 I started school at American River College and earned my associate's degree in social sciences. I earned a bachelor's degree in ethnic studies at California State University, Sacramento, and a master's degree in social work. I have done volunteer work at UC Davis Medical Center and for Resources for Independent Living, the agency that helped me so much.
If the wages of the in-home workers are cut to the minimum, as the governor as proposed, it will be much harder for me and people like me to find help. My caregiver has been with me for 16 years but she will retire soon. I have already been trying for a month to find someone to relieve her in the mornings. But I have not been able to find anyone. It doesn't pay enough, at $10.40 an hour. If it paid even less, even fewer people would want to do it.
Without an attendant I would have to be in a nursing home. I cannot go even two hours without help. I don't want to be in a nursing home. And if I had to go to one, it would cost the state many times what it costs to keep me out on my own.
