Today is a great day for Mary. She got off the streets and into her own home. She was a pleasure to work with and so grateful for the budget we built with her and the help we provided with her security deposit. Read her story below:
My story – To start off, this will actually be the abbreviated version because my story is so long. I will gladly fill in any blanks or parts of this story anytime in the future, In reality, I have been pretty much “homeless” in some sense since I lost my own home over 13 years ago. I had worked as a Sales/Marketing/Advertising Manager in the Beverage Industry for 20plus years and was very successful in what I did. I owned a 4 bedroom home in San Juan Capistrano up the hills, Two dogs. Three cars. I thought my life was set. My home was going to be my retirement fund and I thought life was great! Then the company I worked for had downsizing and I lost my position. Since the tier I was at, it was hard finding a job right away I had to rely on my unemployment. Then the worst hit. My Mom fell ill. Long story short, She fell over and collapsed in my home the day after Thanksgiving and did not leave the hospital until weeks later. Over time she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and and Lou Gehrig,s disease. I can’t explain the pain of watching your beloved Mother who had raised me as a single Mom, get eaten up by these horrible diseases. She was single because my father died of cancer when I was ten years old after a six year battle with cancer. My parents had tried to have have children for almost seventeen years and my Mom was 44 when I was born. Being a strict Irish Catholic, my Dad had been her one and only and she never never remarried.
After a year I physically and emotionally no longer take care of her by myself, so she was placed in a nursing home where actual professionals could take care of her though I was there daily. I worked nights at a restaurant in San Juan after my home went into foreclosure and rented a small place with my two dogs. Then the worst happened My Mother died. She never realized I had lost my home because she was already in the nursing home. This did not last too long because my lifetime of depression and anxiety caught up with me and I was hospitalized. I had to adopt out one of my amazing dogs and my dear friends watched Max, my other one, until I could find a “normal” place. Until then I lived at a shelter and worked in retail to save myself and save money to rent a room somewhere. So at this point I had lost basically all. My Mother. My home, My career. Two of my cars. One of my dogs. Etc.
Now, I am soooo excited!! Just left the place with the keys and I move in tomorrow. It has not really sunk in. Maybe my story will tell you why this means so much to me.
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Mary is the 67th individual we’ve placed this year and the 244th person we’ve placed since our startup in 2014.