Matthew Cauli had no one to turn to when his wife, Kanlaya Cauli, had a stroke and was diagnosed with cancer during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He left his graphic design career to care for her and their young son, Ty. Cauli said he quickly discovered there were few resources for caregivers. He took to social media to share his story and found a community of caregivers on TikTok, where he continues to post vulnerable videos about his family's daily struggles.
"I had to quit my job to go into poverty in order to get on Medicaid so that my wife could get some treatment," Cauli said in a recent social media post. "I've been in poverty for five years, credit card debt for five years. And I am stuck, I'm stuck, I'm stuck."
He shares the hardest moments of his caregiving journey, he said, so people understand how difficult it is.
“I just felt like I had nothing to lose," Cauli told USA TODAY. “I wanted to show everybody, kind of, what it’s really like.”
