A Time to Build
Published: November 17, 2011
At just 24-years-old, Gerardo Flores has experienced things that most people pray never come to pass. His father left when he and his sister were still small, periodically checking in with the family but unable to overcome alcoholism and the influences of bad company. As a result, Gerardo's mother was left to care for her children alone. Because she worked most of the time, it was up to Gerardo and his sister to survive the best way they could.
With no guidance, Gerardo began spending most of his time with other kids and gang members in the streets. Eventually, his sister moved out and he was left to tend to their ailing mother alone. In 2007, he and his mother moved in with Gerardo's girlfriend. He cared for his mother until she died of early-onset Alzheimer's disease at the age of 40.
Earlier this year, Gerardo and his girlfriend got into an argument and he left. Finding himself on the streets for a few days, he eventually opted to come to San Jose Obrero Mission. Little did he know how life-changing his experience would be.
"I don't think my girlfriend expected it, you know," he says, smiling. "She didn't expect me to change my whole life around."
During the nine months that he spent at the Mission, Gerardo was able to attend Career Training and Life Skills classes and to receive the type of guidance that he missed as a teen. He began to set personal goals and to save money from construction jobs. One month ago, he moved into an SRO (single-room occupancy unit) and hopes to earn a degree in massage therapy or nursing in order to help those that experience physical hardships like his mother's.
Today, he is happy and the relationships between him and his sister and father have improved. When he talks about his niece, who was born just a month after his mother died, his eyes light up. He seems particularly proud of the personal progress that he has made since entering the Mission, and has a renewed sense of who he is and where he wants to go in life. He knows that creating a new identity can be hard when people have expectations of you, he says, but starting over is worth it.
Posted in Success Stories
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