Andy McCandless is a woman who knows what she wants.
"I don't like fluff," she said when we sat down to talk about the charity she founded. "It doesn't have to sound better than it is."
No fluff needed when it comes to her nonprofit Michelle's Love. The numbers speak for themselves.
Since 2013, Michelle's Love has helped with bill assistance, cleaning and prepared meals for 64 single moms undergoing cancer treatment. This year alone, the organization spent more than $72,000 to pay mortgage, rent or utilities and provide cooked dinners for 26 families.
"We're going to pay your bills, we're going to clean your house and we're going to give you dinner," McCandless said. "Because if those three things are done, what else do you need?"
Michelle's Love is named for McCandless's friend, Michelle Singleton, a mother of four who died of breast cancer at age 32. Singleton and McCandless met when they were teenagers, both working at 7-Eleven.
"We were just inseparable for almost 14 years," McCandless said.
After Michelle's death in 2005, McCandless co-founded a similar organization called Singleton Moms in her hometown of Phoenix. When McCandless and her family moved to Scappoose, she started Michelle's Love to help parents in the Portland/Vancouver area. The nonprofit makes payments directly to creditors and uses Dream Dinners of Beaverton to supply prepared meals that can be heated at home.
McCandless focuses on tangible, practical help for single parents. She's a quick talker and a blunt pitchwoman, uninterested in collecting hand creams or handing out awareness ribbons.
"I learned to say no to people who wanted me to drive 20 miles to pick up a knit hat," McCandless said. "I say no to people all the time, but in a healthy way. If it's not going to benefit our moms in those three areas, then I politely decline."
Michelle's Love serves working single parents – dads can apply too – who were employed full-time before their diagnosis. That's because other forms of income, such as Social Security or disability benefits, aren't lost during cancer treatment.
Monica Johnson of Portland was forced to close her in-home child care service after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015.
"My oncologist told me you cannot work with children going through chemo because of the germs," she said.
From June 2015 to August 2016, Michelle's Love provided Johnson and her two daughters more than $7,600 worth of bill payments, mortgage assistance and meals. Johnson has gotten a roommate to help with home expenses but even so, she said, without Michelle's Love, "I'm sure I would have lost my house. I would have had to sell my house."
Kristi West is a single mother of two undergoing treatment for her second brain tumor. She's a clinical pharmacy technician at Veterans Affairs Medical Center, but is unable to work full-time.
"They're awesome and basically just said come in whenever you can because they knew I needed the money," West said of her employer. "There were some weeks where I didn't go in at all, or I might have gone in one or two days."
Michelle's Love paid the rent for West's Northeast Portland townhouse while she underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
"It helped a lot financially," West said. "The kids don't really know what I'm not able to pay or what I'm not able to do. It just made it a lot easier."
Christmas is the rare time of year when Michelle's Love strays from its core mission and does something extra for the families it serves. Earlier this month, McCandless met with West, Johnson and their children at Buffalo Gap Saloon & Eatery in Southwest Portland. There, members of the charitable arm of Encompass Realty delivered Christmas presents for the two families.
It's a great way to lift an extra burden around the holidays, but money remains the nonprofit's primary need.
"All those presents are nice if you can put them in a house." McCandless said.
Michelle's Love hosts a fundraiser run in October, a benefit dinner in at Buffalo Gap Saloon in February, and takes tax-deductible donations year-round.
Those who can't give money can give their time. Volunteers are needed to clean homes, deliver meals and perform basic house maintenance such as cleaning the gutters or clearing out a garage. Those unglamorous tasks are routine for a single parent, but become nearly impossible for a cancer patient.
"There were days I couldn't roll my recycling containers out to the curb because I was too sick from chemo," Johnson said. "I didn't have the energy. Sometimes I didn't have the energy to get off the couch, to get out of bed."
It can be hard to ask for help, and even harder to articulate the kind of help needed, so McCandless gives her clients a voice. When someone says, "Let me know if I can help," she encourages the women she works with to give concrete examples. Can you take the kids to soccer practice? Can you buy us a gas card? Can you bring over a dinner? Can you take the trash out once a week?
And if her clients don't know how to ask, she'll speak up on their behalf.
"People want to help," McCandless said, "and sometimes they need to be told what to do."
To donate or learn more about Michelle's Love, contact McCandless at 503-459-1245 or andy@michelleslove.org.
Correction: The online version of this article initially included an incorrect date for the time period Johnson received mortgage assistance.
-- Samantha Swindler is a columnist for The Oregonian/Oregonlive
@editorswindler / 503-294-4031
sswindler@oregonian.com