Homeless - Part II

As I stood in the doorway, I was immobilized.  I didn't know what to do next.  Finally one of the mothers asked me if was coming into the shelter.  I quietly and shyly said, "Yes."  She said, "Alright, I'll go get a staff member."

Whew!  My first step was taken.  No turning back now.

When the staff member came, she was so very warm and inviting; just what I needed.  She introduced herself as Katherine and said she'd take Jenna and me to our room and help us get settled in.

On the way to our room, she explained the different areas of the shelter.  She showed me the kitchen first and the refrigerator that I would be sharing with another mother.  How would I even get food without a car I wondered?

Then there was the telephone where I could only stay on for 10 minutes at a time and needed quarters to be used.  How could I use the phone when I only had dollar bills?  You have to understand, the year was 1989, a long time before cell phones were the craze and unfortunately that pay phone was our only lifeline to the outside world.

Katherine brought me through the community lounge.  Complete with a few cribs, toys, two sofas and a television.  One of the mothers was watching t.v.  She barely noticed me.  I wondered if I would get that way; so wrapped up in my concerns that I wouldn't even pay attention to a new mother coming into the shelter.  I hoped not.

Carrying Jenna strapped to my belly with suitcases in hand proved to be very difficult on the narrow steps which lead up to the second floor.

When I got to the top of the stairs, Katherine showed me a classroom and told me that attendance was mandatory for all the classes if we wished to stay in the shelter.  

We would be learning about a variety of subjects that were geared to helping us when we would one day have our own place to live.  Some of the classes were about nutrition, parenting, and filling out job applications; they even helped the women who had not graduated from high school get their GEDs.

Katherine reminded me that this was not just a shelter for women and their children, but a learning center geared to prepare the mothers as best as they could in order to be successful after leaving the shelter.

To my left was a formal living room.  There was plush carpeting of robin's egg blue and the focus of the room was two chairs and a table.  It seemed like they were placed to look like an area for conversing politely over tea or possibly for a spread in a fashionable home magazine, not for a homeless shelter. I wondered why it was there being so out of context from the shelter I had imagined.

However, there was no tea involved or polite conversations as I was directed to my room.  My guide introduced me to some of the women that were interested in my beautiful baby and those who just mumbled "Hello."  Why were they so miserable, so unfriendly?  I wondered once again if this was what I was to become.

The plush carpeting followed through the halls and into the rooms. The painted walls were crisp and clean.  The shelter definitely did not resemble what I had imagined.  Instead of cold cots and bare walls, I found the staff had made this "shelter" into resembling a home.  I finally let out a sigh of relief.