I grew up in the Fort Green projects in Brooklyn New York. Parents were on welfare and spent every cent on the horses hoping to win the big one. We had nothing..(My grandmother paid so that I could go to parochial school..Sacred Heart school in Brooklyn.I remember going to school wearing the same dress for three months without it ever being washed. It was yellow with a ruffle on the bottom. It had purple, blue and red lady bugs printed on it. I had to be careful when I walked because I would trip on it since it was 3 sizes too big for me. Our food was always the same dish..White rice and fried chicken wings. Not that the welfare didn't give us enough money. It was because all the funds given for food, clothes and a little extra for vegetables for me, were spent on gambling. My mother took me to a clinic in Brooklyn that would give us a voucher for vegetables. They would take us to a room where they asked us what we had for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Of course we would lie.
By 1960, I had quit school and had gotten a full time job so I could save some money to go to cosmetology school, but my parents told me that in order for my them to be able to stay on welfare, I had to sign my check over to the investigators that handled our welfare case. In turn, I would get bus and lunch money so I could get to work. I started to walk to work ( for two years. In winter and summer) I did not buy lunch (I never had any anyway), this way I could save the money to go to cosmetology school. I remember the lunch lady coming around with those delicious sandwiches. The smell would make my mouth water. But someday I would be able to afford them. After two years, my parent found that I had this money saved and gave me a hard luck story about my brother needing the exact same amount I had saved to be able to go to school. If I didn't lend it to them my brother would go to jail. I never receive the money back.
In 1962 I found religion. My gang land friends were so impressed that I was able to prove my beliefs by showing them from the bible.(at that time the masses were said in Latin and few people had read the bible) I had no problems getting out of the gangs because of this.
In 1964 I married. I need to be set free from my overly protective parents. They didn't want to loose a dependent. By 1969, I had three children. I started the first 7 days a week 24 hour a day, all age, learning days care center. People waited on a list to get their children in. My way of advertising was by making flyers and asking shop owners if the would let me tape it to their windows.
My aunt and uncle had been sent as missionaries in from El Salvador, Central America for six years. In 1976 all Americans had been sent out of the State due to the revolution. They were assigned to Wichita Falls, Texas. They told us that Wichita Falls was a great place. It was a small town, at the time. The economy was very low along with a small population. Crime was not heard of. The people and weather were great. I have never regretted it. It still amazes me when I can carry on a conversation with someone at Walmart, in grocery store or in the street that I have never met and they converse back. We loved it here. People talk about it being a boring place...I see it as a quiet and wonderful town. We are in the middle of Dallas and Oklahoma. Who can you ask for more?
In 1979 I became a lay midwife and open up the "HomeBirth Clinic" and delivered almost 700 babies at home. I did my own prenatals, lab work and taught Bradley classes. I would have from 8 to 10 births a month. Then the laws changed in Texas and it required midwives to get registered. I qualified for this but two years latter laws changed again and midwives had to go to school in another state. My husband would not allow it. So, that was the end of that.
Eight month later, my baby brother and mother were on vacation in Florida when they were in a car accident. An eighteen wheeler semi stuck their car three times and trough their car into a raven. All went to the hospital for a long while. It was touch and go for my mother. It was a night mare. The clothes that they had in suit cases for the trip went down a raven with the car that was hit. All the possessions in N.Y. were lost or stolen while they were in the hospital and all they had was the clothes on their back that was wet, torn and blood soaked
Our Mother recovered and friends and family contributed money for them to come to Texas. Their story was in the local news papers and Wichita Falls welcomed them by contributing food, furniture and clothes.
1980 brought an end to a sixteen year old marriage filled with abuse. My three children encourage me to get the divorce and were happy when their father left and they could live without the fear of being beaten everyday. I did not know how to pay a bill, what to do in a banks. How to make a check out or how to drive. All I knew was how to cook, birth babies and clean house and how to, " remember that I didn’t know anything and that I was stupid and no one would ever love me." This is what I was told often in my sixteen years of marriage.
I started a house cleaning business but my ex-husband saw to it that I got fired from each and every client I had, by telling lies that I was allowing men in their houses and fornicating. A girl friend taught me how to drive. I was able to get a grant and go to cosmetology school. Two payments before the car was mine, my ex- husband saw to it that it was repossessed since I was buying it from one of his friends, it was easy for him to do. I had my electricity turned off and sometimes my gas and water but I told my kids that as long as we had a roof over our heads, we’d do all right. Many a times, I'd take things off the wall or go through the house selling my things to pay the mortgage. I couldn’t collect on child support or get food stamps because my ex warned me that if they found out he wasn’t paying child support, he would kick me and the kids out of "HIS" house and auction off all our belongings. So the food bank provided my butter, cheese, corn meal and chicken in a can. Even though I was terribly afraid of heights, I did some roofing. I had never cursed or entered a bar or liquor store in my life but a friend of my brother offered me a bartending job. At a topless club. I never acquired a taste for alcohol or cigarets, so when I was asked to get them a Marlboro I couldn't find it in the bar drinks list. I had a lot of comments on, "What is a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?". The owner would take me and bring me to work. No one liked him because of his illegal practices but I never, never had any problems with him. He paid me a full salary. Never cheated me out of a penny and never even emptied anything indiscreet or indecent. I made enough to buy a car. It had a clutch but I learned to drive it. I finished cosmetology school and got my licence. Then one day a man who was doing promotional videos for the Osmonds, Michael Jackson, Tom Jones and other famous singers came in to get a manicure and offered me a job in his office as a receptionist. I made enough to support myself and my children and lead a respectful life. (even though I worked at a topless bar I was never asked to take my clothes off and the girls looked at me as a big sister who they could come to for advise.) I learned a lot from these girls but most of all was "Not to Judge. We have a saying in Spanish, "No one knows what's in the pot except the ladle that stirs things up." It loses something in the translation.
1988 I met a man that brought up my self esteem.(I'm everything I am because you love me.) He became the wind beneath my wings. One year later, we were married.
In the summer of 1989, while all the kids were out for summer vacation and playing outside, my aunt and uncle died as they lived. While out talking to people about the good news of the God's kingdom, a plane from Shepard air force base fell from the sky and killed them both. I watched the news while thinking, "All those people and children out and about and in all this destruction, only two people died. Now that's a miracle" Not even knowing that the two that had died were my aunt and uncle.
In the 90's out of necessity, my brother formed Trans-American Court Services. He did this so he could support himself while going to school.
In 1997 he decided to further his education by going to law school in Houston and tried to give me the company. At the time I didn’t think I could handle such a large responsibility since a year before I had been diagnosed with Alzheimer. I tried to find some one who would take it over but they felt the same and no one would take it over. Then I thought that if maybe things just didn’t happen to go the way it was supposed to or maybe if he decided to quit school, that at least he would have something to come back to if I took it over ..... For a while. I had a book that for a long time was like a part of my anatomy. It gave me step by step instructions on how to do the job.
In 2002 I was diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure, auto immune, and ex-rays showed that it was not Alzheimer. It was a ruptured disc in my neck that was preventing blood and oxygen from going to my brain another ruptured disk on the lower back. When I was stressed the bulge would expand and caused me memory lost. Three surgeries took care of the one at the base of my neck Temporarily. Plus taking Ginco. Just two months before this my brother called to tell me telling me that he had Diabetes type one.
2006 brought more illnesses. I was diagnosed with cervical cancer and ischemic bowl disease.
I had surgery on the cancer and go to get a sonogram every six months to make sure it hasn’t come back and it hasn’t. The bowl decease is checked often to make sure it will not turn to cancer..But oh well! Maybe then I'll be able to loose some weight.
2007 my brother became an attorney and I am so,so, proud of him. By then, Trans-American Had flourished. The secret...advertise, advertise, advertise.
My husband was able to quit his ten years of working in the sewers for the city and joined me. He does the Notary jobs, serves citation and is a Private Detective as well as working for the Federal Government and Attorney General. My daughter did the billing, video, notary and background and court searches. My nephew also did Notary and serving of citations. His wife did advertising, fills out and enters our applications. I answer the phones, do Notary, PR work and yelled at everyone to get back to doing their jobs and stop piddling.
April 8, 2010. My daughter who had worked for me for almost nine years..My golden child..my child in which I trusted more than anyone in my world..
It started like this..I trained her to be memorable with the clients. To be honest. When she did the billing if too much was sent she was to call right away and ask if they wanted it sent back or placed on credit for next next months bill. I wanted her to bond with those who called. She did it so well that on April 8th she quit her job and 14 days latter 75% of my company was gone. She justified this by called them and telling them that she no longer worked for us and wanted them to take her name from their files that linked us to her. She did not want to tarnish her reputation and was now setting up her own business when better pricing.
I was devastated that finally at the age of 67 I was able to afford a vacation with my husband yet couldn't. Now...we where just too old to start all over again. I had paid for websites, search engines, advertising, cards, brochures...I just didn't have the energy to start over. But the worse thing to accept was that my daughter had no qualms in taking this and continuing to call those who would not switch to her company.
She was married and moved to MO. but instead of giving me back the companies because she was leaving town, she gave her daughter the criminal checks and tried to sell the rest to a server who had just moved in to town. Till this day I struggle with this. Some suggested that she may not have wanted me to know just how much was taken.
To be continued...
**Success is attained by: Enthusiasm, Dedication, Cooperation, Preparation, Organization, Communication, Honesty, Integrity, Reliability, EMPATHY for your fellow man but most of all good standing with God.
Jerry (my brother) and I share the same favorite song.
By: Tim Mcraw - Live like you were dying.
