Son whom dreamed of being an architect, now the architect of his mother's care
Scott Harvey has always harbored some deep-seated ambitions to become an architect.
Almost from the womb.
“I was born with it,” the 52-year-old project manager for an Austin engineering firm said of that love. “I was drawing house plans when I was 6.”
He was always drawn to home magazines that his parents had lying around their house in a Chicago suburb of Highland Park. He’d pore over them and start etching out floor plans and designs.
He never became that architect. At least not yet. He did team up with the Charles Umlauf family to start a successful architectural outdoor lecture series held at the plush Zilker sculptor gardens, one that began with 25 people and ultimately drew an audience of 250 during a five-year span.
He also worked as a real estate agent on the side, but he lost his entire income from that for two years during the pandemic.
Lately, however, Harvey has devoted much of his life to being the sole caregiver for his 79-year-old mother, Sheri.
The Harvey family is one of a dozen families featured in the Statesman’s Season for Caring program this year. They were nominated by Age of Central Texas, which helps seniors and their caregivers.
Donations to Season for Caring continue to be accepted through Jan. 31 for the current agencies and families.
Read more:Sheri Harvey: Chronic pain, diabetes, debt have made senior years difficult
Sheri Harvey has an uplifting spirit even though she has endured severe back pain and arthritis in her spine for decades and has had shoulder and ankle surgeries. She’s needed morphine for any relief she can find.
As she and her son have scrambled to pay bills and fell into near financial ruin, she shuffled around to four different assisted living facilities in the Austin area after she lost her husband, Scott’s father, to colon and liver cancer in 2016.
Scott Harvey has exhausted his finances and still needs to cope with overwhelming financial debt that has reached more than $20,000 in back rent and medical bills. He was recently evicted from his home because of back rent and now lives in an Airbnb.
“Scott couldn’t have been a more perfect child,” Sheri Harvey said. “Now there were times I could wring his neck, but he was a very easy child to raise. Even in high school, he was everyone’s best friend.”
The two of them have been close forever, but they love to tease each other.
“She is a feisty one and very particular,” Scott Harvey said lovingly. “She used to drive my dad crazy. She has to tell you everything. If you’re dusting off the shelves, you’ll get step-by-step instructions. She’s bossy, but she would deny it.”
Learn more:How to help families through the Statesman Season for Caring program
The two have been a good team through all the hardship, and he yearns to find her more suitable housing with the dignity of a private room.
“It’s been rough, but I’ve always been straight with her,” Scott said. “I was out of income for almost two years. She doesn’t complain.”
The family needs a more secure living situation and help with back bills as well as help with incontinent products for Sheri, new clothing, Uber and Lyft cards, and a financial adviser.
To find out more about the Harvey family or to make a donation to their wish list, contact AGE of Central Texas, 512-649-2211, ageofcentraltx.org.
To donate: Use the form below or click here: https://statesmansfc.kimbia.com/statesmanseasonforcaring.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Season for Caring Harvey family: son now mother's caregiver
