First Day: Post 3

Maria came to Whittier First Day broken. Everything in her life seemed to go wrong. Her husband and five children had passed away, her mother had been hospitalized fighting a coma, and someone who she thought was her friend left her beaten down in the middle of nowhere.

For months she wandered the streets aimlessly. As she wandered the streets she was so lost in her physical and emotional pain that she could not see that there was something wrong. She could not remember her name or speak. All she knew is that she had to go to Whittier, a place where she and her parents had once lived.

When she stumbled upon First Day she came across Pat Bouchard, First Day’s Housing Director. Bouchard asked if she was homeless and it was at that moment she came to realize that she needed help.

First Day was going to deny her residency because they believed that she was a chronic homeless, but Ted Knoll, current First Day Executive Director, decided to ask her some questions to see if she could request help.

She had lost the ability to speak and just as it seemed that she would not get the help she now knew she need she was able to write that she needed help and showed Knoll her note. That was when Knoll decided to help her.

Knoll had discovered documents that she had kept in her backpack and was able to identify the problems that led her to First Day and knew that she required medical assistance.

At the hospital they were able to discover that she had been walking around with 42 broken bones in her body and that she suffered brain damage. Upon making this discovery First Day came up with ideas to help her recover from her experiences and be able to fulfill her full potential.  

Once she became a resident the people of First Day helped her get back on her feet. She not only received the basic things people need to survive but she also learned that she had the strength to overcome whatever troubles may come her way in life.

Now she works to eliminate homelessness among the chronically homeless, helps to take care of homeless veterans, manages the Newlin Program to keep families together as they fight to overcome homelessness, works with the Prevention Program, and Rapid Housing Program. On top of working with and managing these programs she also volunteers for First Day.

First Day helped get her off of the streets and showed her how to fulfill her full potential. Now she is using her knowledge to help address the issue of homelessness, something she experienced firsthand. 

Maria is an inspiration. She is someone who has been through the unimaginable, survived it, and came out of it as a stronger person than she was before. Her story is a reminder that no matter how bad we think our lives are or what we have been through we can get through it and accomplish greatness.