Client Success Story: Reggie
Finding Hope in Bunk 36
Reggie has known great love and loss. He grieves his beloved wife of 35 years. He served his country in the Army. He’s died twice clinically and lives with chronic pain. But with the help of our shelter team and his community, he’s found new hope and purpose in sharing his story.
“Had I not met these people there’s no telling where I would be. I lost the love of my life, and I was about ready to give up because sometimes it’s just so hard to try to keep going. It seems like nobody is there for you or nobody cares,” said Reggie.
Growing up, Reggie always admired the love his parents shared. “I wanted what my mother and father had,” Reggie said. “My father would come home from work and my mother’s eyes would light up. So when I met Mary, I knew this was it.” They were married less than a year after they met.
“Throughout the years, I’ve had a good life,” Reggie said, “and little by little it was taken from me. But I still trust and believe that God got a purpose. He got a purpose for my life.”
The trouble started during a backyard BBQ to celebrate his oldest son’s high school graduation. Reggie got into an altercation with a stranger which led to a lengthy prison sentence. This December marks 10 years since Reggie was released from prison and reunited with Mary and their children. He was able to spend seven of those years with his dear Mary before she passed away in the winter of 2021.
Now in his 60s and devastated by the loss of his wife, Reggie’s housing became unstable along with his employment. While living with his son, he was able to find work maintaining the grounds and facility where they lived. When domestic issues forced him to leave, he lost his home and job all in one day.
Reggie was able to briefly stay with his sister, but she would risk her housing if he stayed permanently. He used the short time he had there to find another job and save up money for an apartment. But he had to move before he could find a place of his own, so he was forced to rent a room at a motel which quickly ate through his savings.
“That Friday when Mr. Tim told me, ‘This is your name right here, you’re bunk 36,’ everything started changing.”
With his hard-earned savings gone, and with nowhere left to turn, he came to the Peter & Paul shelter. “That Friday when Mr. Tim told me, ‘This is your name right here, you’re bunk 36,’ everything started changing,” Reggie said.
At the Peter & Paul shelter, Reggie found the support and empathy he needed to start a new path while grieving his wife. “I miss her humor, her laughter. But Daquiti used to tell me, ‘Don’t let go of the memories. But you have to move on. Because if you don’t, you’ll waste away.’ ” Reggie said of his early days at the shelter: “They did a lot of different things to encourage us. To meet people who don’t want anything from you other than to just make sure you’re okay. That inspires you to be better than what you are.”
Daquiti, Reggie’s case manager, helped him find a job at a bakery and an apartment at a senior living facility. Reggie loved his job at the bakery, and after his health forced him to retire he continues to find joy in making and sharing meals with his neighbors.
With the support of our shelter team, Reggie also quit drinking and smoking. “I can’t begin to tell you how they inspired me to be a better man than I was. Daquiti, Teri, Pam, Maurice, Brandon. I can’t even list them all,” said Reggie. “If it were not for these people, I wouldn’t be sitting here today.”
“If I could just say anything to the shelter staff right now, it would be thanks. I’ve never met a better group of people than I did at Peter and Paul,” said Reggie. “I wish I could give each one of them [the staff] an award. Because they owed me nothing. They went out of their way to make sure that I had what I needed to survive.”