That’s how Dominique’s case manager describes her. Dominique grew up in New Jersey and joined the Air Force at 18. She was stationed in Korea when she met Jai, another military member. They were married soon after. After serving for six years, the couple settled down in Jai’s hometown in East Texas and had two sons. Dominique soon noticed their oldest son, Jai Jr., wasn’t talking.
No matter what she tried, she couldn’t get him to talk. Because they lived in a rural area, resources for speech therapy were minimal. They moved to Fort Worth for greater access to services for their son.
“We were keeping up… My husband was working and I had a paper route. The hours were hard and it was seven days a week, but I could be home with my kids when my husband worked. Then our car broke down and we didn’t have the money to fix it. My husband ended up losing his job as a result. My boss would pick me up, so I could complete my paper route until the car was fixed.
But it wasn’t enough and we were evicted. We ended up living out of that
car for two months … It was during that time my son was diagnosed with autism. My husband had a hard time accepting the diagnosis and we separated. I was living at the Union Gospel Mission with my two kids when I first found out about Catholic Charities Fort Worth.”
While she works towards that goal, she needed a job that meets her childcare needs and solves for transportation barriers. She started working as a crossing guard.
