Close Ad

Homeless Mom Gets Arrested For Suspended License And Lack Of Insurance, Police Officer Has Best Response
Ebony Rhodes & Jeff Glazier
Uplifting News

Homeless Mom Gets Arrested For Suspended License And Lack Of Insurance, Police Officer Has Best Response

That first police officer kickstarted a positive chain of events that helped the family get back on their feet.


Arrested and homeless

Ebony Rhodes and her four children were down on their luck.

Rhodes' mother just died and they'd moved to Atlanta but didn't have a place to stay—at one point they even had to sleep in their car. Then, she got arrested for having a suspended license and no insurance.

"It just brought tears to my eyes," Rhodes told Fox5. "I knew what the possibilities were."

But an Atlanta Police Department officer who was also a single mother wanted to help Rhodes and her family. The cop found a shelter for them to stay for a few months as Rhodes took on jobs to move into a small apartment.

Local police helped out

With mounting hospital bills due to illnesses in the family—her youngest daughter has Lupus and is partially blind in one eye, her middle son suffered serious burns in a tragic accident playing near a campfire, and she herself requires chemotherapy—the family found themselves homeless again. To make matters worse, Rhodes' car was totaled and she had to pay $40 per day in ride shares to get to two jobs.

"When bad things happen, I try not to dwell on it," Rhodes told FOX 5. "I'm just like okay, this is meant to happen for me to get where I want to be."

After hearing about Rhodes' situation, Atlanta PD Deputy Chief Jeff Glazier decided to lend a hand.

He started a GoFundMe for the family to help them pay their bills.

"Maya Angelou said...'We are more alike, my friends, than we are unlike,'" Glazier wrote on the GoFundMe. "I truly believe that and hope your generosity makes life easier for a struggling family."

The police department also created a YouTube video.

An outpouring of support

Incredibly, more than $70,000 in donations came rolling in from more than 1,200 donors.

As a result, the family was able to move into a house and got caught up on their bills.

"Everything that is given to us, we look (at it) as a blessing and we appreciate it more than anybody would ever know."

Ebony Rhodes

Even as her family continues to struggle to pay bills, Rhodes said she's paying it forward by donating to people who live on the streets and babysitting for other single mothers on her off days.

The kindness of strangers

It's hard to imagine what Rhodes must have felt like when she got arrested while homeless. Frustration. Desperation. Probably both of those feelings and more.

But out of the blue, she got a helping hand from an unlikely source—police officers she didn't know. Then, she got more help from others she didn't know amounting to $70,000.

This unbelievable act of kindness goes to show how kind strangers really can be, and that even when things seem hopeless there could be light at the end of the tunnel.

More uplifting stories:

Lead with empathy
Putting yourself in someone else's shoes can make a world of difference.

Hot Stories

Why Paul Walker Left His Only Daughter With Vin Diesel

Vin Diesel & Paul Walker were more than just friends, they were …

content.jwplatform.com

When the tragic news of Paul Walker's death surfaced, the world was left in shock. As one of the most beloved stars of the Fast and Furious franchise, his passing was felt deeply by fans around the globe. But perhaps the most devastating impact was felt by his daughter, Meadow Walker, who was left without a father.

Keep ReadingShow less
Life Stories
4 Signs You've Found a Kindred Spirit, Not a Soulmate
friends wearing same outfit

Spirituality exists beyond words — to a dimension where language can only hint at deeper truths. Any words used to attempt to describe or explain it will always be poor translations because words often fall short when describing spiritual experiences. It's like trying to capture the ocean's vastness in a photograph. It might show its surface but there's no replacement for the direct experience of reality.

RELATED: The Psychology and Spirituality Causes Of An Identity Crisis

On Defining Spiritual Connections

Throughout history, people have tried to capture extraordinary experiences and spiritual connections through language. Terms like soulmates, twin flames, and kindred spirits attempt to describe these non-ordinary bonds. Yet these labels are merely signposts that point to something mysterious and won't fully capture it.

Keep ReadingShow less
Relationships
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his parents Randi and Pat
Archive

Make no mistake about it: Patrick Mahomes is the face of the NFL. The Tyler, Texas native is the son of Pat Mahomes, a former Major League Baseball player, and Randi Martin.

He burst onto the scene in 2018 when he made history by throwing 50 touchdown passes and 5,000 yards in a single season — a record he shares with Peyton Manning. He followed up his initial success by leading the Kansas City Chiefs to an incredible victory at Super Bowl LIV. If that wasn’t enough, he carried the team through to yet another Super Bowl the very next year, though they ended up losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Mahomes has gone to two more Super Bowls since and he's won back-to-back titles (2023 and 2024).

Keep ReadingShow less
Family