Partner Family Report
The Rita Broadway Family
You’ll love Rita the moment you meet her, and if you’ve already had that privilege I’m sure that you have told her inspiring story more then once. She smiles, when she tells it and though it is a story filled of hardship and struggle, Rita’s faith and love come through in each word.
To her friends and co-workers at Lakeland Hospital she is known as “Super Rita.” She is not only a full-time nutrition services expert, she is a single mother, grandmother and aunt for the three young dependents living in her home. She is an active member of the PTO and has a passion for arts and crafts and interior decorating.
To get everything done Rita is up every morning by 4:30 A.M.
“I have to get the laundry done and the lunches made before the babies wake up.” She says. “I need to leave for the hospital by 5:30. I’ve got to get the kids to the sitters and off to school, so I can work my shift, and pick them up again. Then there is homework and dinner, baths and bedtimes. There is a lot to do when you are a single provider.”
It is amazing that Rita can provide such care for these children, but what is more amazing is that they are not even her biological children. Rita has already had a full house once, in fact, at one point she had three of her own, she inherited four kids by marriage, and she adopted her troubled sister’s children to bring her collective brood to a total of fifteen.
Now she legally cares for six year old Vershawn, the son of Rita’s 23 year old daughter, Erica who is 11 now and 17 month old Shariah who is technically a great niece.
“Times have been tough. A little over a year ago, we were living in conditions that were unimaginable. We were in a rental and it was just falling down.” Rita remembers. “It wasn’t safe for the kids. I was scared for them to go into the bathroom because the toilet and the tub were about to fall through the rotting floor.”
“When I found Habitat for Humanity, I knew that it was an answer to many prayers. We had been put out and I didn’t know where I was going to go with these kids. My family was having a lot of hardship and I was suffering from exhaustion and struggling with my own depression.”
Rita visited a couple of different psychiatrists and counselors looking for help. “I was crying all of the time. I just wasn’t myself. I could make it through work, but when I got home I cried and cried.” The therapists gave Rita prescription medication, but Rita claims that it made her too tired and she needed to be able to stay awake if she was going to fulfill her responsibilities to her family and employer.
“The thing I was most worried about was not having a home for the kids.”
The solution to that immediate problem came in the form of a new Habitat home. Volunteers from the Whirlpool Corporation had constructed a home on Cass Street in Benton Harbor and it was vacant at that time. When Rita’s application passed through the Family Selection Committee, Rita asked if she could move directly into the empty house and do her required “sweat equity” hours on the homes of other partner families. It was a win/win situation for all parties, a plan that seemed orchestrated by God from the beginning.
“Now there is enough room for all of the children.” Rita exclaims “I feel that they are safe when they are at home, and I could not be more proud of my Habitat house.”
“Rita has one of the most immaculate homes you will ever see. She has turned her love for crafts and interior decorating into an amazing display worthy of Better Homes and Gardens.” says Executive Director Michael Green. |
