Debra Stapleton noticed the person sitting on the Foothill Transit bus cease on Sundown and Merced avenues. It was not removed from her own residence in West Covina. The person was heavily-bearded, unkempt, and surrounded by a jumble of possessions. He was hunched over a walker.
Lety Lopez-Viado noticed him as she drove forwards and backwards from her work. She met many gang members and homeless individuals on the job at Los Angeles Parks and Recreation.
There was discuss on-line chat boards in regards to the man, too: he was scary wanting. How lengthy had he been dwelling there?
There was all this discuss again in 2017, after which there was Debra, and Lety, and Debra’s husband Tom. And others, Debra Stapleton can be the primary to say.
Like others, Debra would cease and provides the person meals to eat. However when summer season handed and the climate turned colder, Debra and Tom Stapleton jumped in once more.
“It broke her coronary heart to assume that he can be sitting within the chilly throughout the holidays,” Tom Stapleton mentioned. “We went to a number of of the small motels within the space and had been capable of finding the Motel 6 subsequent to the ten Freeway that might let (him) keep. We paid for a four-day keep.”
Debra and her mother purchased the person some Christmas presents and new garments.
One evening after work, Lety Lopez-Viado quietly did one thing, too.
“It takes lots to scare me,” she mentioned. “I work in East L.A. and I take care of a number of craziness, so one evening I went to the bus cease, parked. I mentioned howdy. We exchanged names. I sat subsequent to him for 2 hours, getting data and telling him I might get assist.”
Lopez-Viado received his identify, Daniel Fonseca, and realized his story. Intellectually disabled, in his late 30s, Fonseca had injured his hip after he was hit by a automobile. Born in San Gabriel and raised in La Puente, he attended Sundown and Temple Elementary, Sparks Center College and Workman Excessive College in Metropolis of Business.
He was doing properly till his grandparents, with whom he had been dwelling, handed away. He lived with family however was homeless by 2017, “after they threw me out,” he mentioned. He discovered his strategy to that bus cease in West Covina.
“It’s all the time West Covina for him,” mentioned Lopez-Viado, who now serves on the Metropolis Council.
After some hospital stays, together with one for psychiatric assist, Fonseca moved to everlasting housing in a bunch house.
“He lastly received to remain in a spot he loves,” Lopez-Viado mentioned.
From his personal room, with its huge mattress, “and my very own bathe,” Fonseca, now 43, likes to work on a pc and make telephone calls. He calls the Stapletons and Lopez-Viado. He discovered the house quantity for his principal at Workman Excessive, Brad Manning, who didn’t find out about his former pupil’s homelessness.
“I keep in mind at lunch he would usually come up and speak about his day or his lecturers, or no matter he had on his thoughts,” mentioned Manning. “After he graduated, I didn’t hear from him for years. Perhaps 10 years later he began calling me periodically once more about desirous to ask about his lecturers.”
After Fonseca was settled within the group house, he requested his former principal to go to. For Christmas that 12 months, Manning introduced him a 10-speed bike. Fonseca requested if he may commerce it in for a cruiser, since he couldn’t deal with the 10-speed.
Three years later, Fonseca requested Manning if he wished to purchase a motorbike. It was the identical cruiser, after all. Nonplussed, Manning purchased again that bike, in addition to the helmet he gifted his former pupil earlier.
“Daniel is a superb man, who has had a tricky life,” he mentioned.
It grew to become a daily factor for Manning to deal with Fonseca to lunch, often at Panda Specific or Taco Bell. It was over one in every of these meals that Fonseca shared his plans: like his good friend Tom Stapleton, who was a retired police officer, he wished to turn into a safety guard.
Manning, this 12 months’s West Covina Citizen of the 12 months, and longtime Kiwanian, received the membership to present him a grant to pay for coaching. At one other lunch, Fonseca batted across the concept for a automobile present, which ultimately grew to become the Kiwanis Membership Kartoberfest.
“Though a lot of the cash was to be donated to the West Covina Senior Heart, we agreed to present a part of the proceeds to Daniel and likewise permit him to be our safety for the occasion, giving him expertise,” Manning mentioned. “Tom helped supervise him and put together him for this and Daniel did an incredible job.”
It was on the Kartoberfest that each one of Fonseca’s pals, the Stapletons, Lopez-Viado and Manning, related the dots of their relationship to him.
“We’re so glad to seek out ourselves working collectively,” Lopez-Viado mentioned.
On Dec.10, Fonseca served as safety on the West Covina Christmas Parade, mentored by the safety firm the Kiwanis Membership contracted with. Fonseca, beaming in his “Safety” cap and shirt, posed for images with cops.
“He’s very persuasive and enthusiastic,” Manning mentioned.
Lopez-Viado has organized a GoFundMe, at gofund.me/ac82ec87, to assist pay for his safety coaching, a party on the park, and maybe a visit to Disneyland since Fonseca has by no means been.
“He’s a candy man,” she mentioned. “Daniel loves firm. He received out of dwelling on the streets and he needs to enhance. He needs to present again.”
Fonseca repeats one aim in dialog.
“I need to be like Tom,” he mentioned. “I prefer to put on my safety hat, I hope to get my certification as a safety guard and ship reviews, like my good friend Tom.”
For his or her half, the Stapletons, who additionally take care of a particular wants son at house, mentioned they admire Fonseca’s bold spirit and willingness to exit and search for methods to earn cash to raised his life.
“He’s a caring and considerate person who all the time needs to assist others,” they mentioned. “Daniel doesn’t let his disabilities cease him from making an attempt to assist himself to be self-sufficient.”
The couple decide him up for appointments and errands.
“It simply feels good to assist and help somebody that has some disabilities and nonetheless has objectives and desires of bettering themselves,” Tom Stapleton mentioned. “Simply because an individual is disabled, doesn’t imply that they can’t be a optimistic affect on others and the neighborhood they stay in.”
The Christmases of his childhood middle on recollections of his grandparents, Fonseca mentioned. His grandmother would make pork tamales and they’d sit and eat across the kitchen desk. This 12 months, he used purple wrapping paper for presents he’s purchased his pals: a DVD for the Stapletons, a manicure set for Manning.
“They’re good, they’re a blessing,” Fonseca mentioned. “Ms. Lety is a pleasant woman, she’s humorous.”
He mentioned he prays and needs to present the ugly issues which have occurred to him that means.
“Individuals would inform me to go house however they don’t perceive why I used to be there,” Fonseca mentioned about his days on the bus cease. “Then my pals got here. That makes me really feel good.”
Anissa V. Rivera, columnist, “Mother’s the Phrase,” Pasadena Star-Information, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Every day Information, Azusa Herald, Glendora Press and West Covina Highlander, San Dimas/La Verne Highlander. Southern California Information Group, 181 W. Huntington Drive, Suite 209 Monrovia, CA 91016. 626-497-4869.