MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It’s easy for some people to take shelter and heat for granted, but during weather like the Mid-South is expecting on Wednesday, it can mean the difference between life and death.
“I ended up living in my car,” Jennie Smith said.
Smith said she lost everything after a paralyzing stroke and a nasty divorce.
“My daughter was taken from me due to the living arrangements,” Smith said.
Smith claims to have been living in her car for eight months through dangerous weather conditions.
“The snow, the ice…the first night, it was negative,” Smith said.
It was not easy for her to make it through last month’s February Freeze, Smith said.
“I had no gas in my car to start it to keep warm. So there was a lot of putting the covers over my head and breathing and just using myself to heat myself,” she said.
Some nights were so cold that Smith thought she was going to die.
“Scared to go to sleep. I don’t know if I’m going to wake up in the morning,” Smith said.
With the snow and freezing temperatures expected Wednesday, Smith is pulling out her blankets once again and saving gas to turn on the heat.
“I’ll be OK tomorrow I hope,” Smith said. “I have enough gas for, you know, a few hours.”
Every night, especially the freezing nights like we’re expecting on Wednesday, Smith hopes to make it out of her situation.
“I pray for a change,” she said.
Smith told WREG she had not utilized the city’s warming centers but monitors the weather so she can be prepared.