Archived Stories
A Home of My Own By Kathleen Hester
Hello my name is Kathleen Hester and do I have a story of success to tell you!
I left my mom at the age of 2 years old to live with relatives and then moved into foster care when they could no longer care for me. After being in foster care, I spent many years in habilitation centers finally ending up at Bellefontaine where I lived from 1986-2006. Although it was my residence and I had friends, I have always wanted a home of my own.
One day in 2006, St. Louis had a terrible storm leaving most of the City with an electrical outage for weeks. Due to the outage, all of the people living at Bellefontaine were in the gym with the dim lights because the energy was generated by emergency generators.
That was when I met my Snow White. Carol Snow, Barbara, Glenda, Jackie and David, Future Care Staff, had come to St. Louis to visit a “Kathy” who was looking to move into her own home. Future Care had an opening in a home in Rolla and was to meet with Kathy to see if they could support her in an Independent Living Home in Rolla. The staff at Bellefontaine brought them over to me (lucky mistake for me). I began visiting with the staff and we were talking about things I liked and Carole Snow asked if I like Toby Keith music, and I sang her one of my favorite songs by Toby Keith. We talked for 10 or 15 minutes and I really enjoyed talking to them. The Bellefontaine staff returned when she realized that she had introduced them to the wrong Kathy. After they left I went to the social worker and told her that I wanted to go live with those people from Future Care.
Carol now tells me that she could not get me off her mind and really wanted to support me so she called the social worker offering the opportunity for me to live in Rolla. When they talked with my guardian, he was concerned about me moving to such a small community in the center of the state after spending my life in St. Louis. Finally, he agreed to a short visit to Rolla and the staff from Bellefontaine escorted me ,for a visit. After the visit, everyone agreed it might work. Future Care staff came back to visit me and to learn how to support me because there were still a lot of obstacles to overcome. They observed how to support me, they learned some of the things I liked and didn’t like, and they learned of my health care needs. The staff at Future Care talked to me about my favorite color because I was going to have my own bedroom and I was going to pick out a border for the walls, the paint color and the bedding for my new room.
A place for me to call home was ready and I moved to Rolla in August of 2006 and I had my own bedroom (I had always shared a room with others). I love my new home and the staff.
My first birthday at Rolla was a surprise party and my first birthday party in my life. Future Care Staff found my aunts that I had not seen for many years and invited them come down for a surprise party. Since that first party, I have had a birthday party every year. Most times, I go to the gambling boats and meet up with my aunts and we party there. I also visit my friends at Bellefontaine when I am in St. Louis. I especially like seeing Karen Welch, my nurse for many years, and my friend.
The thing that I wanted more than anything else was to see my brother. Staff began working to make that dream come true. Finally, Carol Snow and her staff after a lot of dead ends, found my brother. He is living in Missouri, in an Individual Supported Living arrangement very similar to mine. On August 25, 2009 my dream came true because staff drove me to have lunch with my brother.
When we drove up to the house and I saw my brother, we both began yelling to each other, “I love you”.
He treated me like a queen. He waited on me and made sure I was comfortable the entire visit and it was a great day. We are making plans to visit monthly as long as my health will allow. I am planning on sharing Thanksgiving and Christmas with him (shhh!) and will make him a special CD of me singing my favorite songs.
