Who's your someone?

This is my Nonna. In Italian it means "Grandmother". You'd be caught dead if you called this woman "granny" or "gma".

When I was asked "who was your someone", my mind didn't even hesitate. She was. She saved my life in ways I never dreamed possible. I was born to addicted parents, home life was scary, unsafe and unpredictable. My mother was an abuser, the likes of which you only read about in those gut wrenching autobiographies.

My two sisters and I bounced around often. From house to house, to foster home, to group home and sometimes even living out of a car. For small stints of time I remember we were placed with my Nonna and Nonno (grandfather) but we were always ultimately returned to our parents. That was the worst. Knowing we had to go back.

Until I was 10, by then, after fighting tooth and nail, we were finally adopted. Saved.

This woman not only fought for me, but she was kind and patient and loving. So many things that were so unfamiliar. Of course statistics show that with a life like mine, I would end up homeless or on drugs and there were many years in early adulthood that I did just that. I did what I was supposed to, which was fail. The system wasn't designed to save me, but this woman never once gave up and she changed my story. She instilled in me the meaning of "try again" and what unconditional healthy love felt like. She would plant the seeds and give the space to do it on my own, with love, strength and purpose.

Without this woman, lord knows where I would have ended up. She was and is my someone. I proved the statistics wrong because of her and I wouldn't be here today as a foster parent myself, giving the same devotion to children who need their someone, every single day.

For children living in foster care, too often there is not this person. We can change that. We must change that. Every kid deserves their someone. Who's Yours?

*This story was a repost from Case Manager, Ari Patterson, during our 2020 Who's Your Someone Campaign.