The gift of a cross
When a new resident of De Paul Manor sits down in the office of intake and out-take coordinator Esther Ramirez’s for their introductory session, they see two things: A no-nonsense woman who wants to help, and an office with a wall covered with crosses in dozens of sizes and styles.
“When a resident moves in here, they're afraid. They don't know what to expect. Especially if you've been homeless more than a year, it's rejection after rejection. So, I make what they think are unreasonable promises,” Esther said.
The first promise is that if they work the program, meet with their case managers, submit their moving docs, and submit applications, they're eventually going to get a key to their own place.
The second promise is that once they get those keys, they’ll get to choose one of the crosses or other memorabilia off Esther’s wall and take it to their new home.
“When that time comes, and they bring me their keys, I'm just so joyous. I'll turn around and say, now it's your turn. You pick something from my wall or my desk, whatever you want, just to bridge us together.”
In addition to the wall of crosses, Esther also has a table with more crosses and other tokens that can be chosen, including saints, candles, pictures, and more, so as not to discriminate from the diversity of residents that SVdP accepts into its shelters.
Mando Alvarez is one such guest who put in the hard hours and eventually got the keys to his new apartment. After showing them to Esther, he got to choose a cross off her wall.
“I asked for the one with candy on it, and she told me they were beads,” Mando said.
“It's a bridge from homelessness to being housed,” she said. A bridge between the two of them, between the shelter and their new home, between their old life of struggle and the new one they’re setting off to build.
Plus, it gives them a decoration for what is, for many, an empty apartment. “So many times, they'll take a cross, only because they want to have something on their wall there,” she said. “It feels good to know that they're living with something to remember us by. The first thing that on their wall will be a cross or a picture that connects us to St. Vincent de Paul.”
Mando’s cross is one of the first decorations in his new apartment, which he has been in for just over a month now. Above the cross is a framed quote that says, “I still remember the days I prayed for what I have now.”
