Theresa Solomon

Teresa Solomon (or Teri, as she likes to be called) is a 64-year-old woman living on a fixed income in a very nice home for senior citizens. She has food to eat, clothes to wear, a roof over her head and an expectation for the future that she hasn't had in a very long time.

But it has not always been so.

When Ray Green, Senior Chaplain for the Orange County Rescue Mission, met Teri in October of 2001, she was living on the streets, trying to find work and a place to stay in the aftermath of a job loss—and that presumably because of her age.

When you don't have enough money for first and last month's rent and a security deposit, and you have nowhere else to turn, your options are limited to a dilapidated motel or the streets. You spend what little money you have just to survive, so the prospect of bettering your situation is dismal at best.

Ray signed Teri up for OCRM's Strong Beginnings Program, designed specifically to assist the homeless in overcoming the barriers to self-sufficiency. About a month later, she found herself in a nice apartment and on the road to recovery. She graduated the Strong Beginnings Program in May of this year, made an overdue contact with her only daughter, and things were very much looking up for Teresa Solomon—until she got a certain phone call.

Teri had planned to visit her daughter and two grandchildren in the Bay Area when she got word that they had all been involved in a head-on collision which, sadly, they did not survive. Further investigation into the incident revealed that it wasn't an accident at all. Teri's daughter was planning to leave her husband and the police now say that he hired someone to murder her. Unfortunately, the children also became victims of the plot.

Teri must have more tenacity than most of us, but she confesses that, without the support of the Mission, she doesn't know how she would have dealt with the loss of her daughter and grandchildren, compounded by the ever-present need for a place to live. She says that the Orange County Rescue Mission saved her life.

Teri is still hurting, but she’s right back out there looking for work. “I worked with computers back when they had punch cards,” she says. “I’m not scared of them.” She’s working on the Tech Vehicle to learn up-to-date computer skills. In the meantime, she’s going on every interview she can. The interviews by phone go well, but due to the struggling economy and Teri’s age, finding employment is difficult.

However, Teri is applying herself to the “strong beginning” she has gotten through the Rescue Mission and looking forward to the quality of life she has come to know God wants for her.