Story for a lot of us: Paycheck to Paycheck 3/17/2014 (Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life & Times of Katrina Gilbert)

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Story for a lot of us: “paycheck to paycheck”
 
Documentary hits home in these times
 
By Mike Hughes
 
For the Lansing State Journal
 
Like many people, Katrina Gilbert finds herself occupying the wrong life.
 
She’s 30 now, a milestone of sorts. By now, she said, “I was going to have a college degree and a really good job and do a little traveling.”
 
Instead, she’s been supporting three kids,( ages 7, 5 and 3) with a $9.49-an-hour job at a nursing home. She gets by … unless anything happens, like “having a flat tire, or the car breaks down or one of the kids gets sick, and I have to miss a day of work … There are a lot of surprises. You say, ‘no, not this!’”
 
For a compelling HBO documentary, filmmakers stepped inside her life, off and on, for nine months.  Shari Cookson recalls one cold day in a house trailer in Chattanooga, Tenn. “She didn’t want the kids to go outside, because she was afraid they’d catch a cold … I felt the claustrophobia.“
 
This is a life many people know, the film says; 42 million American women and the 28 million children who depend on them live near or below the poverty line.  It’s some thing Gilbert struggles with filmmaker Nick Doob said. “She’s really trying to break out of it, trying to get a better deal.“  Then fresh obstacles appear. When she moved a few miles, she crossed into a new state and lost (for now) food-stamp eligibility. When she missed some college classes, because the kids were sick, she  (for now) her financial aid. “My mom said, you’ll figure it out,” Gilbert said. “And I will”
 
That’s part of what drew the filmmakers, Cookson said. “She’s such a vibrant person.“
 
Their film is part of Maria Shriver‘s project to focus on American women.  At the Chambliss Center, which provides subsidize daycare in Chattanooga, they noticed Gilbert, who resists any stereotypes of the working poor. “She’s personable, she’s young, she’s funny.“ Cookson said. 
 
Nursing-home residence seem to savor her; friends joke with her about having the same name ( Katrina) as a fierce storm. “Sometimes they just call me Hurricane,“ Gilbert said. “I’ll answer to that.“
 
Gilbert did well in high school, academically and socially, she said “I was friends with everybody.“
 
She married at 19 and still speaks well of her ex-husband, Jeremy Gilbert: “He’s really caring. He’s a great dad … Sometimes, we’ll take the kids together somewhere, like the county fair.“
 
But his pill addiction ended their marriage, she said, and drained their bank account. He recovered and was happy to watch the kids … but until recently had no job and lived with his mother, two hours away.
 
in some ways, Gilbert is luckier than most people. She has help from her mother, (who watched the kids when she trained as a certified nursing assistant) … And Jeremy (now living closer and working) …  And a new boyfriend (with four kids of his own, to worry about)… And the Chambliss Center.
 
“I didn’t even know it existed until someone told me about it,” Gilbert said. “They do an amazing job: my son was saying the ABC’s when he was two years old.“ Her pay finally went up to $9.63 an hour, the first raise in 2 years; she expects to get by.  “Katrina has a real sense of living in the moment,” Doob said. “She just takes things as they come.“
 

Lansing State Journal
17 Mar 2014, Mon · Page D3
 
 
Dictated Transcription:  S Cookson