My name is Monica Santiago,
As a teen we migrated here to Florida to work the fields. my father had a brother who lived here and we cam to visit. My father saw the potential we had as a big family working in the fields. we used to make good money as long as all of us worked. I am one of 7 children. I have 3 older brothers and a twin sister and another brother who past away as a baby. after that it took my mom 10 years to finally have another and that one was a girl. so in all we are 3 brother and 3 sisters. My mother was a very hard worker she finished up to grade 6th. My father only up to 3rd grade level.
Education in our house hold was a great deal. out of 6 siblings only 4 graduated. Still made my mom very proud of us.
As for my father he was an alcoholic and rarely spent time with us unless we were working in the fields picking produce. after 26 years of marriage my mom walked out on him once we were all out of the home and with our own lives to live. Mom was and still is our rock.
I Graduated in year of 87 and married 15 days later my high school sweetheart. The one and only man I had ever been with. We had 3 great, wonderful girls. my oldest is 21 and has a child of her own now, who is also very medically needy. he is 8 months old and has had already 3 surgery's. heart, intestinal and hernia.
My oldest daughter takes care of her son and myself and my 2 younger children. There has been many times when I have prayed to god to take me home so that I may no longer be a burden to my child. But he still has me here.
I always though that I would grow old with my husband but something's don't always go as you may think they should.
2008 -2009 the worst months of my life.
On Aug.27 my daughter gave birth to her son 2 1/2 months early by emergency c-section. he was only 1 lb and 1 inches long. I named him Levi (meaning strength)
June 08 I lost all my teeth due to a rare gum decease that the dentist thought would lead to me losing my jaw so the teeth had to come out. at age 39 I had full upper and lower dentures.
Sep.27 to be exact ( I remember because I had just turned 40 on the 19th) my husband called me and said " I Love you. I miss you , but I cannot live with you" and that was the last of him in my life. He still visits his girls but makes things harder for myself.
Oct.21 I was doing my yard work and was using the weed eater and the thing got caught up on a cable cord the weed eater kept hitting my leg and almost cut most of it off I could not get to the shut off button on time. I manage to take care of my leg myself without having to go to the emergency room.
Nov-Dec My only Truck I own started to leak transmission fluid into my radiator and is now in my motor. I did what I could to keep it going. added a side small radiator to bypass most of the clear fluid into the engine. My explore is way over 200000 miles and is still barely going. but it takes me sometimes without troubles where I need to go.
Jan 4-April 4 I ended up at the hospital because I could not urinate. my bladder was so full that I could not walk. went to the hospital and there at that time was when I found out I had a what they called it at that time a tumor on my left kidney. I had to see a urologist and had to take several kinds of test. until finally they came to a conclusion that my kidney had to come out. After the surgery I stopped breathing and ended up in ICU. I had been in great paid for 4 months.
April 9 I had my surgery they had to remove the whole left kidney because the tumor had consumed all of the kidney and did not let it function as it should. after they removed it I was told that it did have cancer. and that while they had been doing test and doing biopsies of my hip they found out I have a mass of something growing on my right hip. I now have to see a cancer specialist to determine if it will turn into cancer or not.
I also suffer from PVC ( premature vascular circulation) and high blood pressure and anxiety attacks. and my lungs are at 75 % working capacity.
I know need much help to get to where i need to be . And that my friends is back Home In Texas where I was born and raised. I need to get enough funds to buy a truck so I can move myself and my girls. to start a new beginning.