EJ

When you first meet EJ, you'd think that she'd lived a blessed, healthy life. She doesn't walk as if she's ever been defeated or has ever found anyone brave enough to challenge her for that matter. She's self-assured, confident, and passionate about her job as the Director of food services at the Everett Gospel Mission. 

Her story is quite the opposite. It's been a long road getting to this point in her life although she's quite sure that she's found her calling in life and is where she's supposed to be.

Erica, who goes by EJ, is one of four sisters born to addicted parents. She was only with her Mother for the first nine months of her life before the state took custody of the children for the first time. Her Mother did get the kids back for a couple of years when EJ was six, but it didn't go well. Her mother tried to kill herself with a 9mm on the front porch of their house in front of her four children, all less than ten years old. She pulled the trigger three times, with the bullet in the chamber, but it did not go off. This event is the only collective childhood memory the siblings have. Having lived through all these things, and more it was at sixteen that she made the conscious decision to not be like any of the adults in her life. They were relocated to California to be with their Grandmother. EJ remained in California through school and at 19 married. When the marriage didn't work out, she moved back to Seattle to try and build a relationship with her family again. She moved in with her mother, but unfortunately, that was also short-lived as her Mother still battled mental illness and was having addiction issues again. 

During this time, she had stable employment working in the Telecom industry with a national carrier. But after 15 months of employment, the department was closed, and everyone was laid off. After the layoff things got rough, no job meant no money for food and rent. She and her young son were evicted and on the streets of Seattle. She called 211 for help, and there was nothing open, was told to go purchase sleeping bags, a tent, and given the address of "Tent City." She was downtown Seattle sitting and crying when a lady approached her and asked why she was crying? EJ explained the situation, and the woman told her to go to Snohomish county. Not overly familiar with the area, she asked the woman where? She said to get on public transit and go north. Once in Everett, she went to the DHS office, who redirected her to Catholic Community Services for a voucher. The voucher allowed her to stay in a hotel until she was able to get housing at the Everett Gospel Missions woman's shelter. She remained at the shelter for 16 months. Regretfully she was kicked out of the women's shelter the day before she was going to her housing voucher. The fight had broken out because, as she now knows, she let someone get to her. A woman from Eastern Washington came by and flicked her in the nose and called her a Nig--er, and she just lost it. She's very clear that she was to blame for this fight because she let that person prey on her emotions. EJ said the hardest part of being in the system was watching people with drug issues or mental illness, getting all the resources. People like her that get evicted from a rental go to the back of the line. An eviction strike on someone's record makes it impossible to get someone to rent to you. On average, it's 5 to 8 years to find housing after an eviction.

She would panhandle bit, and people would throw things at her, call her "junkie," while her young son was sitting in the car next to her. She proudly states that she has NEVER had an addiction problem to anything other than cigarettes. She received the same mistreatment from the police, which she really couldn't believe because she was just a woman that had fallen on hard times. 

Quite honestly, EJ has done everything right, she graduated high school, went to college, got married, had kids, pretty much the picture of the mantra "do all this, and the rest will fall into place." Now that said somethings did not work workout as we can see, despite this, EJ believes in positive energy and that the path takes you to where you need to be. When she's talking with the clients at the mission, she projects a positive message. Instead of letting them complain about their lives, she reverses the conversation into a mental pathway to change.  

Being kind and optimistic does not make her a pushover, so be warned! She's removed mission volunteers from the kitchen program for inappropriate behavior and even kicked everyone out, creating the meal herself. 

I want to share a few quotes that are my favorite from our 50 minutes of the recorded conversation. (which is also why this took me so long to post)

• "Even when people make me mad, or made me upset, well okay, let's dance it out!"
• "I don't talk about the past, the things that happened to my sisters and me when we were young, that's not my testimony. Instead, I like to talk about mentality, energy, being active, and positive."
• "I'm a chain breaker." 
• "I'm where I'm supposed to be."