Leta is an example of resilience. Her earliest memories are of her family being together. She remembers her dad teaching her to ride a dirt bike and wrestling with her brother. The memories still make her laugh. Leta says, “It was fun growing up. I remember more happy memories than sad memories.”

Yet things changed when her parents divorced. Leta went to live with her dad in a “home so broken nobody should live there.” There was black mold and dirt everywhere. Rats could be heard in the walls and their feces covered the floor. Leta is grateful that she didn’t experience homelessness as a child, but the living conditions she experienced are difficult to even hear explained.

In high school, Leta found The Coffee Oasis. She came in to find a job internship and found a family. The HOPE Inc. internship gave Leta new confidence that she took back to high school to complete her degree.

After high school, Leta got married. But the relationship quickly turned abusive. Together they moved from place to place. Sometimes on friends couches, one time in a trailer in Tahuya (showering once a week in Belfair State Park), and finally in a tent. By the time Leta was in a tent, her husband had left to stay with a friend. Those were terrible, cold, and lonely times. Leta would make a weekly visit to The Coffee Oasis to meet with a case manager, wash clothes, and shower. Looking back on that time, Leta says…

“The Coffee Oasis made me able to live through that time.”

Eventually a spot opened up at Nelson House, the Coffee Oasis supportive housing for young women in Poulsbo, and Leta was able to have a place to live. Looking back on her life and where she has come from, Leta told us…

“I’m so used to my life being destroyed. I got familiar with chaos. I’ve had no self-confidence, but this place has helped me grow so much. I’m so grateful that I moved here.”