Tzu Chi Foundation Santa Rosa rallies behind those in need

Disasters sometimes bring complete strangers together in such profound ways that they end up feeling like family. That’s what happened when Christine Montgomery met Jenny Yao in the aftermath of the 2017 Tubbs fire.

Yao is a long-term recovery team leader with the Buddhist compassionate relief organization Tzu Chi Foundation Santa Rosa. Often likened to the American Red Cross, Tzu Chi sprang into action in Sonoma County hours after the fires started and remained for two months with a working base of 500 volunteers. It was one of 41 federal, state and local agencies providing emergency help and services to fire victims at the FEMA-run local assistance center in downtown Santa Rosa.

When Montgomery, then 65, walked into the center two days after the fire, she was facing myriad problems. The previous week, severe cramping and blood clots had brought her to the hospital in the middle of the night. Doctors took care of her immediate pain and bleeding, and she was scheduled for a biopsy; Montgomery suspected that the malignant melanoma she had survived decades ago had returned.

As scary as that prospect was, other problems fought for precedence. She had barely escaped the flames raging through Santa Rosa’s Journey’s End mobile home park, and now - since the National Guard had cordoned off the area - she didn’t know if her home had survived the fire. Did she have a home or didn’t she? If not, her extremely limited financial resources would make it difficult to relocate.

“I was in shock and disbelief at the LAC that day,” recalled Montgomery, a former substitute teacher. “I felt hopeless. I didn’t know where to turn, what to do, or even what I needed.”

Jenny Yao remembers well her first meeting with Montgomery.

“Christine came in soon after the LAC opened,” she said. “I interviewed her and, like many people during those early times, she was scared, shocked and crying. Almost everyone cried then, even men. Many people couldn’t even talk; they were simply speechless.”

Yao, a former pharmacologist and drug researcher who has worked with Tzu Chi for a decade, listened with empathy as Montgomery expressed her worries and fears.

“Jenny was so wonderful,” Montgomery recalled. “I felt that somebody was really listening and caring. I confided my fear that the cancer had come back, and she told me not to worry - her husband had developed cancer and had come out fine. We had such a huge connection. She reached out and said ‘We can help you.’ And they did.”

Yao immediately put Montgomery at the top of Tzu Chi’s priority list for individual case management.

“It was because of the cancer,” she said. “We gave her a cash card for her immediate needs.”

“That $600 was a godsend to me,” said Montgomery.

A few days later, Montgomery’s fears materialized. She was diagnosed with three different forms of cancer: Mixed Müllerian tumor, Ovarian clear cell carcinoma and Rhabdomyosarcoma (rarely found in adults). In November 2017, she underwent a radical hysterectomy, followed in January by a round of 10 chemotherapy sessions (she is due to start a round of 28 radiation treatments later this month).

“The treatment for her rare kind of cancer was super-?aggressive,” said Yao. “Round after round of chemotherapy.”

While Montgomery coped with her illness, Yao and others at Tzu Chi worked to resolve her housing crisis.

The fire at Journey’s End had a tragic aftermath. Two residents died, and the park’s infrastructure - including water, power grid and sewer system - was completely destroyed. Of 160 mobile homes on the property, 116 were reduced to ash. The remaining 44, most owned by their residents, were red-tagged as uninhabitable because of smoke and asbestos contamination.

This situation created a Catch-22. Residents whose insured trailers had been destroyed were able to collect insurance. Residents whose trailers were red-tagged were not, since insurers weren’t legally obligated to cover intact structures.

Christine’s singlewide mobile home was still standing, but she couldn’t live in it. She couldn’t sell it, either, because nobody wanted a red-tagged home. She was temporarily living in her sister’s home, but that situation would end on June 1. Journey’s End had been a rent-controlled haven for low-income seniors like her, with spaces averaging about $500 per month. With a monthly income of less than $1,500, she had few habitation options.

By early May, time was getting short. Yao and Howard Tong, a long-term recovery specialist with Tzu Chi, learned that a unit in Burbank Housing - a Sonoma County nonprofit organization that builds affordable housing - had become available.

“They were giving priority to fire survivors,” Tong said, “and this unit was on the ground floor with a roll-in shower - good for her because with the chemotherapy she had no strength for a tub. It was more than she could pay, but we were running out of time finding her a place. We encouraged her to apply for it and offered to help find resources to cover part of the rent.”

Yao noted that seven agencies were involved in various ways with helping Montgomery’s housing problem. Aside from Burbank Housing, “an amazing partner,” she noted that Linkages to Senior Housing, a homeless prevention program run by Sonoma County Area Agency on Aging, was particularly helpful. The end result surprised everyone: the insurer for Montgomery’s trailer agreed to pay the apartment’s rent through June 2019.

Since the fire, Yao, Tong, and others at Tzu Chi have been a consistent part of Montgomery’s life. They reached out to the Salvation Army for assistance in paying her medical bills, helped her fill out many forms, assisted with additional expenses related to the fire, and much more.

Despite the vicissitudes of the past year, Montgomery has an upbeat attitude and a love of life. She has begun to knit again, sings with the Journey’s End choir group and attends church every Sunday. By early this month, she had finished her Christmas shopping, with packages wrapped and tagged. She is grateful to many.

“I can’t believe the number of people who stepped up to help me,” she said. “Complete strangers, like those who gave to the North Bay Fire Fund with love and generosity. And the Ceres Healing Meals Program for bringing my meals. The doctors at Round Barn, the St. Rose Cares program at Catholic Charities for bringing me to my chemo appointments.

“And, of course, Tzu Chi, with Jenny and Howard in my corner and fighting for me. Jenny has been there from the beginning, we’ve been friends since we met. She’s done so much for me and others, and I feel like we’re sisters. And Howard has helped in so many ways, like filling out forms and helping arrange the Burbank housing.

“All these people and so many others, what they did for me and others is amazing. They need to know how much it’s meant,” said Montgomery.