Written by: Ashley Nadine Schaber, Lead Advocate at St. Anne’s Place
Two families are on my mind as I write today.
Both families had been staying at St. Anne’s Place for over six months when I began my work here in September of 2020. Their stories are each unique, but nonetheless strike me with similarities as they faced both hardships and triumphs on the path from shelter to stable housing.
These two families are each made up of a mother and two daughters, and only came to know one another through their stay at St. Anne’s Place. With both mothers unable to work, these families experienced firsthand the uphill journey which, in our current system, must be taken to secure housing on a small fixed income, and no prospect of work to look forward to.
As staff, we watched the impacts of prolonged shelter-living on these families, and I wondered many times whether we should retake their identifying family photos hanging in the back office, because many months into their stay, the daughters in the photos were nearly unrecognizable because of how much they had grown.
These two mothers weathered the storms of their lived experiences and present circumstances with their eyes fixed on the goal of securing housing for themselves and their daughters, and as staff, we had the privilege of being alongside them during this part of their journey. We got the chance to watch a kind of growth that is so all-encompassing, it’s hard to put into words. A daughter, six years old, scaling a boulder during our rock climbing program. A daughter, eight years old, growing to love our tutoring volunteers who supplement her distance learning. A daughter, thirteen years old, who knows exactly what her mother wants for Christmas. A daughter, fourteen years old, offering to help her mother carry a mop up the stairs to clean their room. As staff, we got the chance to see the unconditional love and dedication of a mother to her daughters reciprocated in the acts of kindness, awareness, and love from daughters to their mother.
We got to see the love of determined mothers in action as they were striving towards stability and self-sufficiency. And after nearly a year in both cases, we got to see each family secure a housing opportunity and move out of shelter. Two daughters, talking about how they planned to decorate their very own, brand new rooms. Two daughters, planning the first meal their mother will make them in their brand new kitchen. Two sets of two daughters, whose personalities and dispositions impacted the lives of so many during their stay at St. Anne’s Place, filled with anticipation and the joy of all that is to come for their families in their brand new home.