Victoria Berry, IHM

Welcome to My Neighborhood

Meet Karley Scott, my neighbor who lives just across the hall. This bubbly 7-year-old has brought joy into my life. I appreciate the intelligent, articulate conversations we have. I marvel at her high energy and infectious giggles.

You would never know the hard life she has had in her 7 years before moving to Kenmore. Her mother is a stellar example of what the stability of the Alexandria House program provides. This single mom is attending college while working full time, all in the midst of the year of pandemic while her child learns to zoom into her class. Keanakay is very active in her Christian Church as well. Oh, by the way, with the help of Alexandria House mentors, she has published a memoir “Viewer's Discretion Advised” which is a mosaic of her raw memories of the foster care system, child abuse. She was homelessness for 10 years, despite being fully employed. Now, with the help of AH classes these past couple of years, she is totally in control of her budget, paying off all her bills so that she can be debt free. Ms. K is hoping to move with her young daughter to a one-bedroom apartment, which would be a spacious step up from her single room apartment here. I really feel honored to know my wonderful neighbors who have gone through so much pain in their lives, yet who are keeping the faith, hoping, and working for a better future.

Meet Tzighe, my neighbor who lives in a single apartment right around the corner from me around the 3rd floor hall. She originally came here via CAST, then became housed here through Alexandria House. Tzighe (pronounced sirgay) is about my age and was born in a very little country inside the big continent of Africa. Now, after all her travails, she is proud to be an American citizen. I see her every day and am blessed by her big smile and kind eyes as she shares her special African coffee with me. Oh, the heartaches she has weathered you can only imagine. But with the helping hands of CAST and AH, she has a safe and stable life here at Kenmore.

These are just two examples of the wonderful AH people who live here at Kenmore. My fellow IHM Bernadette still resides here on the 2nd floor; we are a strength to each other. We all really are a community of women helping each other as the needs arise. Did you know that there are 18 apartments (32 people including the children) that the Immaculate Heart Community rents to Alexandria House now? And did you know that are still 12 empty apartments since December 11, 2020 when 8 of our elders moved to St John of God & Kingsley Manor? All those IHMs are well adapted and very appreciative of their new homes. I really do miss each of them, but I do keep in touch by phone and have taken some of them out to lunch.

Who is my neighbor? Who is not my neighbor? Are we not one human family? I am so grateful to be living here among God's children As Pope Francis said, “Hope is bold. It can look beyond

convenience and open us up to grand ideals that make life beautiful and worthwhile. Advance along the paths of hope.”