Joyful Perseverance
By: Jeff Massie, Director of Neighbor Care
I met Magali on April 22, 2021. It was her first time on the Glean Up crew, a low barrier work program that puts homeless people to work picking up litter in Midland. If I had to describe her with one word, I would say joy. She has a joyful presence, and you could feel it when she got on the Glean Up Bus. The more I got to know Mag, the more I became dumfounded by her joy. Like all of us, she has a past and it did not sound like one that would have created this joyful person.
Magali was born in Canada but early in her life moved to Colorado with her Mom and her Step Father who adopted her. Growing up her life was pretty standard until she married her high school sweetheart at 19 years old. Then she found out he was abusive. Aggressively abusive. Even while going through the divorce, He would follow her or show up where she was in violation of a restraining order and watch her. Mag was just out of high school, being abused and stalked, and going through a divorce. As you can imagine, she was depressed. So she started going to a support group for abused women to begin processing and healing. During this time, someone she knew saw that she was always sad and crying. The friend gave her a drug that Mag had never heard of and said it would help her to not be sad. Mag, desperate for relief from her pain, tried it. It was Methamphetamine and it worked. She took it before her support group and then made it through the whole session without crying. She even felt good. She liked that so she kept using it here and there over the next 20 years. Then when work became demanding at a retail store during Christmas holidays, she used it to keep up with the long days and endless tasks. She remembers going home on the evening of December 23rd and going to sleep. When she woke up, it was the night of December 25th. She had slept through Christmas! She checked her phone and had several messages from friends and family who were worried about her. That is when she decided that was enough. She prayed for God’s help and went back to sleep. When she woke up, Mag felt like a huge burden had been taken off her shoulders and she was hopeful. Later, she was working as a live in home health worker and doing well until her patient passed away and the family kicked her out. This is when she became homeless. She moved to Texas to be closer to her family and was using her stimulus check to pay for a hotel. Mag couldn’t get a job because she didn’t have ID. She was having trouble getting her ID because she was told she needed immigration paperwork even though she was adopted by a US citizen. She finally ran out of money and went to the Salvation Army for help. Mag was extremely nervous about this but when she got there, she was welcomed in and cared for. Staff at the Salvation Army were kind and wanted to help. She soon made some friends and joined Glean Up. Mag was feeling useless because she couldn’t get a job and was staying in a shelter. Working on the Glean Up crew gave her purpose and put some cash in her pocket. She didn’t feel useless anymore and she was contributing to the community. We connected her with legal aid to get help with her ID but this could be a long process. She decided to try one more time to go to DPS get her ID. Luckily, she spoke with a supervisor this time who saw what was going on and approved her ID. Mag had an Identity again! She soon found work and graduated from the Glean Up program. The Salvation Army helped her to get section 8 housing and she is no longer homeless. Magali is doing well, attends church regularly and is engaged to be married in August! It was a pleasure getting to know and work with Mag and I am thankful to have a new friend.