Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article This past January, life was looking up for Cristina Ramirez Gonzalez and her family of five. A longtime contract home health care worker, the Napa resident had just taken a full-time job at an assisted living facility. Her husband, Juan Carlos Hernandez Cortez, was racking up overtime at […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article When Juan Murillo and Sonia Montes left their hometown of Guadalajara in Mexico, they hoped to improve their lives north of the border. They arrived in Fairfield, encouraged by Murillo’s brothers, who had found steady work in the area, and settled in. The couple welcomed their first child […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Friends Debra and Teresa never expected they’d be in line at a food bank. But on a recent Friday morning in Petaluma, that’s exactly where they were. “Both of us used to be executives, and now we’re standing in a food line,” Debra said. “I was always a […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article It wasn’t until Asbel Bernal failed an exam last May for her Napa Valley Adult Education class that she realized just how big a toll her family’s money and health problems were taking on her. The once talkative, cheerful student told the class translator, who noticed she seemed […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Until about a year and half ago, Gene DeSmidt was thriving. An accomplished woodworker and general contractor, the Oakland man earned accolades for rebuilding Berkeley’s famed Chez Panisse restaurant after a fire and constructing a conference center at then-Mills College. He was, he said, enjoying a full life. […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Most mornings, Charles Hope likes to sit on the fourth-floor balcony of his apartment overlooking the foothills of San Jose and lose himself in a weighty historical tome. Studying history, Hope says, can contextualize the day’s events and show us how to avoid the mistakes of the past. […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Andrea Thomas-Paul has a large and far-flung family. She has siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins in Sacramento, where she was born and raised. Four of her eight children, who range in age from 12 to 32, live with her in Oakland; the others are in San Francisco, Atlanta […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article A lifelong surfer, Sean Geary is happiest in the midst of ocean swells that are bigger than buildings. Perhaps that’s because he understands the delicate balancing act that comes with unexpectedly soaring to incredible heights on top of a wave, only to be crushed by it moments later. […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Almost a year after his wife died, Michael Sharpe still keeps her clothes in the drawers and closets of his small Novato apartment. “I say to myself — a little internal dialogue, soliloquy — ‘How come you don’t close the doors, Mike, so you can’t see the clothes?’ […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Keoni Washington misses his mom’s macaroni and cheese, her ham with pineapple on top and her sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows. Thanksgiving Day in 2020 was the last time he and his three younger brothers would ever have them. Their mom, Kawuana Washington, was hospitalized with COVID […]
