Jamie Tilton was born and raised in Seattle, but she can’t decide whether she prefers the city or the country. “I love living in Seattle, even though the rents are high,” she said.
Jamie split her time growing up between Seattle, Oregon, Colorado and California. She is a “great animal lover” and used to go horseback riding often.
“Even though I was born in Seattle, I’ve half the time lived in the country and half the time in the city. The places that I lived, they had farms and animals.”
Jamie has raised several kinds of animals, including pigs and rabbits, and even showed a goat named Nutmeg through 4-H when she was growing up.
Jamie does not currently have any animals; most recently, she has taken care of an older rescue golden retriever, named Molly.
“[Molly] was so sweet; they’re the sweetest dogs, and smart.”
A Real Change vendor for two years, Jamie has been battling homelessness for more than two years.
“Unfortunately, I’ve lost almost everything since being homeless, but I should be in transitional housing soon,” she said.
Jamie is excited to “get her life on track in 2017.”
Despite circumstances that have been hard on her, she cites Real Change as something that has “kept me more positive, and given me something positive to do during my homeless struggles.”
“I am proud to work for such a good quality paper,” she said. “And I believe the customers that buy or support the Real Change are people in our community that care about the community.”
Jamie sells mainly at the Greenwood Safeway.
“I actually do like the Greenwood area; it has quite a few character-type people, interesting people,” she said.
Selling there, Jamie has a lot of “very kind and generous customers.”