In partnership with the Milpitas Beat and Hope for the Unhoused, Inc., Milpitas Wishes brings back to the community the holiday spirit of giving, giving to those less fortunate than us. We hope to facilitate the warm feeling you can get once you make a difference in someone’s life. Each year, we envision highlighting a handful of community members in Milpitas who have experienced challenges and how we, as a community, can give them a hand.
If you were given the freedom to create a world, what would you put in it? Would your world include superhuman feats? Centers for self-discovery? Would it be a world where anything that could possibly be imagined can happen?
These are the kinds of worlds that 15-year-old Junior creates in the stories that he writes. A freshman in high school, Junior and his family have been moving between hotels, shelters, and friends’ homes since 2021.
Issues arose for the family in February of that year, when they were unable to bounce back from the pandemic. Since then, they have had to move to many different places, and things haven’t been easy.
“They were exposed to quite a bit,” said Ria, the family’s mother, regarding her and her children’s time at one of the shelters where they stayed. She recalled specific memories, such as one when her family was attacked by someone under the influence, and others when they witnessed overdoses happening right near them.
The family, which includes Junior, Ria, and Ria’s two other children, Lucy and Eric, is currently staying with the children’s father (who is separated from Ria). However, the house remains unstable, with some of the children sleeping on air mattresses in the living room.
“He wakes up every day crying because he doesn’t get enough sleep,” said Ria regarding her youngest son, 10-year-old Eric, who, along with not having access to a bed, suffers from sleep apnea.
The family also struggles with needing seasonal-appropriate clothing. “First thing when I get paid, I make sure that I wash the stuff, but it doesn’t always work like that,” said Ria. The family does not have enough clothes to last the whole week, so they need to wash their clothes multiple times a week if they don’t want to end up reusing their used clothes, Ria explained.
Despite all these challenges, Ria urges her children to focus on their childhood and hobbies. In their free time, the family enjoys being together; they often go on runs, play sports, and cook together. “My children — I think — are better cooks than me,” said Ria, referring to both her minor children as well as her four adult daughters, who do not currently live with them. The family often cooks meals such as spaghetti together, and during holidays, they make dessert, something that 7th-grader Lucy stated her older sisters do during Thanksgiving.
The family also enjoys surprises. “She likes to surprise us,” said Junior regarding his mother. The children all recalled special moments when their mother surprised them, such as when she would bring them all out to eat or even buy them unexpected gifts. “We never really know she’s listening until she does it for us,” said Lucy, recalling when her mother suddenly bought her shoes after she had mentioned wanting them.
The surprises aren’t always big; Ria often indulges in small gestures for her kids. Such as when she witnessed them regularly looking for snacks; noticing this, she started trying to keep snacks regularly in her purse for them to find.
“They fight like cats and dogs just like any other kids, but they really do cherish each other,” Ria said.
The children all wish for different things for Christmas. Junior has expressed his wish for a PlayStation after seeing one on YouTube. Lucy wishes for a makeup vanity and some new clothes (her favorite brands include PrettyLittleThing and Essential). Eric wishes for a VR headset, as well as for his mom’s car to be fixed (it was recently wrecked).
“My Christmas wish would be for my children to be housed in a healthy environment and my car to be running again,” said Ria. “I don’t have anything for myself. I can’t think of anything for myself.”
On the bright side, Ria recently found an apartment and is currently seeking approval from the housing authority to move into it.
Readers interested in making donations to help ease the family’s hardship going into the holidays can do so using the link below. Milpitas Wishes would like to provide them with $400 toward repairing their car and $100 toward gifts for the kids.
