I have a pretty powerful story to relay that has just really fully played out to me, after 30 years having gone by. Its something that some of you can relate to, but also something everyone can do something about. At a recent trip over by MSU campus a couple weeks ago, I was reminded of a time when I was 7 years old, the same age Gavin is now, living in Springfield with my Mom and my brother Josh Gorman who was 4 at the time. We lived right across the street from Hammons Student Center in a placed we called The Family Center that housed multiple families made up of women and kids on the run from abuse. We where one of those families, we lived up in the top of the house in some kind of make shift living area with beds, a tv, etc etc. They had a big yard to play in out back and I really remember a lot of good things about that place being 7, we played ALL the time, the families took turns cooking dinner, and I had a girl friend there named Brandy Hicks. How I remember her name I dont know, I just know her family was in the same situation. I didnt know it then, but those where good times living there when I was 7- a good escape from the things I saw when I was 6 when my dad was around drunk all the time, you can imagine the things we saw FB isnt a place to go into detail. No need. After we left the Family Center my Mom would start to bounce from place to place with us, trying to avoid my Dad as much as possible, and slowly but surely start to better herself and while raising two boys. I remember living with my sister Kristie Gorman for a bit, then in a trailer park where my Mom would end up managing them. A few years later she would get her license to sell real estate and did really good with that for a while. After that she decided to open her own in-house day care and that REALLY did well. It was open for a long long time, and would later be a place my son Jay Gorman and his nephew Jason Bond would end up going, a place they called Grammas School :) At that point she owned her own house, owned her own car, and made a decent living and most importantly took care of a lot of kids that loved her very much. The Family Center we lived in could have just been the place we needed at the time to help get things going in the right direction. As a matter of fact, I look at that as a huge turning point in my Moms life, and ours as well. This isnt typical of me to post something so private, but the reason I am saying all of this is that I recently found out from a friend of mine Charity Rone that Bolivar has a place set up called House of Hope, and it serves families escaping abuse. I saw that they were needing some stuff for Thanksgiving, and now Christmas for women and their kids. Some of the stuff House of Hope does in Bolivar is multi-faceted: providing shelter for women and kids fleeing domestic violence, have a support group for those going through some of this stuff, provide legal and medical advocacy, and also help women move out on their own after being in shelter. A lot of times families fleeing abuse leave with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and are in need of a lot of the basic things. We are taking care of one of the families for Christmas and when I saw the list of things the family needed it included towels, socks, clothes, etc. That right there speaks volumes, it says to me they are in need of things we all dont think too much about day to day, they need the basics to survive. It doesnt have to just be at Christmas, House of Hope takes donations whether its money or donated furniture, etc etc year round. I know this has a very special place in my heart, and I am going to be teaching my boys as they grow that there are people out there that are in situations so tough and without anything- and those people need to know there are people who have been in there shoes, or there are people who will step up and say I care about you and want you to succeed. You never know when you reach out to help that it will be a turning point in a families life, and a pretty dramatic one like it was for me and my brother and Mom 30 years go. For anyone interested in helping the phone number is 417-777-3229.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 17:46:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015