E THE EVOLVING WOMAN MAGAZINE
with
Grace Vandecruze In your book, Homeless TO Millionaire, you share about the incident that left you and your family homeless. What were some of the emotions you struggled with during that period? At the age of twenty-one, I stood outside my brownstone apartment on Saratoga Avenue in Brooklyn with my six brothers and sisters, my mom, and my dad, and watched everything we owned—our clothes, memories, and shelter—go up in flames. And what didn’t go up in flames, what I thought we’d saved, was ruined by the chemicals in the fire retardant foam the brave firefighters used as they battled tirelessly to save our home. However, My life took a tragic turn that day. The first tragedy was that everything my family and I owned could now fit in a black 13-gallon trash bag with room left to spare. The second was the 228 nights that my siblings, my mom and dad, and I would sleep on cots the size of yoga mats. In an area littered with abandoned buildings and known for its crimes, we coordinated our schedules so that we’d never have to be by ourselves on the street or at the shelter. We prayed continuously for our safety and survival. We came to the U.S. from Guyana for the American Dream, but this was the American nightmare. Have you ever had a dream demolished in front of your very eyes? Then you may understand the anguish, helplessness, agony and pain of losing everything that you consider of value to you. I am grateful for the Flagstone Family Center on Amboy Street, Brooklyn which became our home for those formidable seven months. My parents did everything they
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D EC EM B ER - 2020
