“I had a funeral,” Ana spoke with grief in her voice, recalling the death of her son two years prior. “But there was no body, he was a full donor.” Tears pricked her eyes as she nodded, “A full donor.”

Ana never thought she would find herself alone, unhoused, and suffering from debilitating depression. But when her son died in 2023, Ana was unable to pull herself out of her apartment, much less make her way to work. She lost her job and nearly her life.

“If I had been alone in my apartment, I wouldn’t be here.” There was a pain in her recollection of the memory. “I did try to commit suicide.”

There is no timeline for the grief that losing a child can cause a loving mother. Studies from the National Institute on Aging found that parents who lost children can continue to face depressive symptoms and poor well-being 18 years after the loss of their child. Without intervention and support, parents will continue to feel the traumatic effects of child loss, impacting their daily lives. For Ana, there was no support system she could turn to, and her grief consumed her.

Her apartment was once a sanctuary to return to after long days of work, where she could share a meal and conversation with her son. Now, it was a painful memory. In 2024, massive rainstorms in San Diego flooded the apartment. “I woke up with water around my ankles,” She recalled. The rainwater poured through the sinks and toilets in her small apartment, not leaving an inch of dry space.

Emergency services helped her for a short time, giving her six months to stay in a hotel before figuring out where she could go next. With no housing, no job, and no path, Ana ended up unsheltered and on the streets.

For anyone, living on the streets has adverse effects on an individual’s mental health. Women are impacted by this at a higher rate. Research at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego found that women are nearly 2 times more likely to ideate suicide. Ana, who was already in a fragile mental state, was facing an environment that would only continue her downward spiral.

That is, until a helping hand extended itself to her. Ana was connected with Rachel’s Promise, which offered more than shelter but a space where she wouldn’t be alone. It was that community that helped Ana pick herself back up. “Being here at the shelter helps me,” she looked around the space, “You’re not alone, and that’s what keeps me going.”

A wide array of traumas, life events, illnesses, or injuries can place an individual into homelessness. “This is the concept they have, if you are in a shelter, you are either a drug addict or a prostitute,” Ana said. “But that’s not true.”

Falling into homelessness is far easier than climbing out of it. In an instant, your life could change from stability to disorder. It takes a lot of work to overcome the trauma that causes homelessness. Finding companionship and community was the first step Ana needed.

Rachel’s Promise gave that to her.

There is no one perfect path to stability, but in San Diego, there is one perfect community—Catholic Charities Rachel’s Program.

“Every client is different,” Says Rachel’s Program team member Dian. She explained the way each woman is approached differently to adapt to their needs, traumas, and personalities. In doing this, the Rachel’s Program team finds great success in assisting the ladies at the shelter. Typically, the team can get women in housing within four months of their arrival at the program—a testament to their work ethic as well as the strength that our women have to succeed.

At these interconnected shelters and day centers, it isn’t just case management and counseling that help our participants overcome their barriers—it’s the community. The team at Rachel’s Promise helped Ana find employment and recover from the traumatic loss of her son and the tragic flooding of her home. But it is the companionship that Ana will remember most.

“This is where I turned 51!” She smiled, her eyes sparkling. “People here are so nice. They don’t even know me, but they got a cake for me.”

Supporting Rachel’s Program is supporting mothers like Ana and thousands of other women fighting through similar grief on their way to recovery.

Each unique story needs a unique supporter; become a part of the solution today.