ST. LOUIS — The community is rallying around a St. Louis nurse, who recently lost everything in a house fire.
Besides being on the front line of COVID-19, she's also in charge of an organization helping those at risk.
Tiffany Nelson started an organization called TOTES 4 Tomorrow in 2015. TOTES stands for: Today's Outreach To Encourage Spirits.
"We help those in under served population and those who are homeless or the risk for homelessness. I'm a giver. I freely want to give to my community, without any expectation of receiving anything back," Nelson said.
She's hosted annual events, such as back to school giveaways.
Nelson said she wants to help those facing tough times.
But that's not the only population she serves.
"I work with the elderly population at the moment," Nelson explained.
Nelson is also a nurse practitioner and risks the possibility of getting COVID-19 every day, in order to support her patients.
"At any moment, I can be exposed to COVID. So, that's always that worry and fear that I may bring it home," she added.
She's worried of bringing it home to her four children.
But just a few days ago, another fear sparked around 7:15 a.m.
As her children were sleeping, Nelson smelled something out of the ordinary.
"I went downstairs to the basement and I see red flames. So I immediately grabbed my son. I have four sons. So we started grabbing getting them out the house," Nelson recalled.
An electrical fire in the basement ruined everything they owned.
"Our clothes, some shoes, couches TVs entertainment system, a drum set, pictures, books," she said. "It's definitely hard. I'm trying to be a nurse dealing with a pandemic and then trying to be a human and dealing with my own personal loss."
But the community is returning the favor to a woman, who's poured her efforts onto them.
Loved ones are trying to raise funds and donations to help her rebuild.
She says this is what motivates her right now, "There's light in all of this darkness, so it keeps me going, and I'm truly grateful for that."
She's also grateful the back to school supplies for her organization were saved. They were once stored at her home, but were moved to storage.
Beyond that, she's grateful her family is safe. She believes it could have been worse, as her children were sleeping.
"I usually leave around seven o'clock, so I'm thankful for whatever delay that we had to make it where we were there," Nelson said.
And she's happy to be alive to continue giving back to the place, she calls home.
"While this is something bad or something bad is happening right now. There's something greater on the other end. Always. You just have to push through it," Nelson added.
HOW TO HELP AND DONATE
- Cash app: $princessjonel
- Paypal: paypal.me/tiffanynelson04
- Zelle: mochaswiss5@yahoo.com
