A crash left her household devastated. Now this mom leads the way in which to their restoration

Death practically claimed a boy one evening in August. Determined to battle again, his mom, Alida Tomas Mendez, spent months bringing him again to the world of the dwelling.

That day began off like another for Mendez, a 38-year-old manufacturing facility employee. She awoke earlier than daybreak in her garden-style condo in Homestead, turned on the lights within the galley kitchen, and made breakfast. It was 5 a.m. She cooked for a household of seven: herself, her companion and her 5 youngsters, together with Jennifer Ramos, 21, Pedro Ramos, 17, Jonathan Mejia, 11, Julio Mejia, 6, and Yaily Mejia, 3.

The three center youngsters rushed off to catch the college bus. The 21-year-old left for her job at a movie show. Mendez and her companion dropped off Yaily — a 3-year-old color-pencil artist — at daycare, and headed to work at a farm and plant potting manufacturing facility. She noticed Pedro, {the teenager}, after college when he dropped off his backpack and grabbed his bike to go to a close-by gymnasium for a exercise earlier than dinner.

After an extended day, Mendez cooked dinner — her go-to meal consisting of black beans, white rice and a fried egg or omelet. That’s when a name got here in. It was a paramedic. Her son Pedro, he mentioned, had been in an accident. The 17-year-old had been struck by a automobile. He was in important situation and being flown to Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Mendez made the one-hour trek to the Medical District, the place she met with one of many docs tending to her son. As Pedro pedaled residence, the physician instructed her, a driver had slammed into the teenager and his bicycle at a purple gentle. Her son flew off the seat and hit the bottom, his head cracking in opposition to the pavement. His possibilities of survival, the physician mentioned, had been slim.

After weeks in important situation, Ramos survived.

Mendez was at his aspect throughout essentially the most essential instances on the hospital. She was with him when he returned residence weeks later, throughout the restoration course of, which continues to be ongoing. She now not works her common work week, altering to a part-time schedule to accommodate Ramos’ physician visits and bodily remedy. Her and her companion’s financial savings — a complete of $4,000 — went in direction of masking Ramos’ copayments.

When requested by the employees at her children’ childcare heart how she managed after the accident, Mendez mentioned, “’I’m marvelous’ I told them, but I thought to myself, ‘If only you knew the pain I carried inside. But (I think) if someone shares pain, then that’s not good because you’re bringing sadness to others,” she mentioned. “It is better to be positive, (think) all will turn out well.”

Her resilience is the explanation she deserves a Christmas miracle and assist from Wish Book donors, mentioned Jasmine Martinez, a coordinator on the Redland Christian Migrant Association South Dade Child Development Center, the childcare program that cares for Mendez’s youngest children.

From the primary day Martinez met Mendez on the college, she mentioned the social butterfly all the time mentioned hi there, providing a smile and checking in with the employees. The collision in August trampled Mendez’s spirit. Martinez needed to assist return gentle to Mendez’s life, so she nominated the mom for help from Wish Book.

Alida represents many immigrants, Martinez mentioned, people who find themselves “in this country trying to move forward, trying to always help their families. I believe that one way or another this can give her faith and hope that she can move on.”

The household hopes Wish Book donations pays for a laptop computer for Pedro — he’s catching up on the primary semester of eleventh grade from residence and researching post-high college plans — in addition to a house copy machine and printer for the youngsters’ schoolwork, maybe the FPL invoice, lease and garments for the kids.

Goodbye Guatemala, Hello USA

Born in Guatemala, Mendez grew up in a village outdoors town of Huehuetenango. Surrounded by mountains, Mendez lived close to a espresso plantation in a one-bedroom residence with a mud flooring. She was one in every of 10 youngsters. Before she realized learn how to learn, Mendez was pulled out of faculty to select espresso beans. Her father believed it futile to maintain his daughters in class.

Life was restricted to work and residential, the latter usually proving harder than the previous. Her father was an alcoholic and expressed his outrage by beating Mendez’s mom and siblings. She was no exception. A mistake with chores price her dearly. One oddly formed or burnt tortilla led to her father grabbing her wrist and putting her hand on a scorching range.

Mendez dreamed of escaping Guatemala. Twenty-five years in the past, with the assistance of her brothers, Mendez traveled 2,244 miles to the United States and by no means seemed again.

She landed in Atlanta, however quickly discovered town introduced new challenges. Mendez labored on farms and slept beneath bridges. Landlords, she mentioned, refused to lease to immigrants. She landed in Moultrie, about an hour’s drive from Tallahassee.