Welcome to Vogue

Meet my new found Family!

I walk through the door and some of my adoptive younger siblings run to come and hug me. I come to visit my mother from time to time, but being down in San Diego and all it is a bit hard. Now, where are my manners, I haven't even introduced myself my name is Cole, I am a thirty-eight-year-old gay man who, at the age of eighteen found himself living in the streets until a woman with a heart of gold opens the doors of her home to me and all of my baggage.

She helps me find that love for myself I lost the day my mother threw me out of the house after finding out I kissed a boy, but that wasn't the ticking factor, what led her to those actions was the moment she asked me whether or not I liked it and well I didn't just like it, I felt my stomach twirl inside of my body as my skin rose and my heart rate grew faster. I mean, I didn't give her that exact description but when asked about what happened I just simply replied "I kissed a boy and I liked it"

From that moment on, it all went downhill. I went from living in Beverly Hills to dumpster diving in south Los Angeles. So why don't we all take a sit so I can tell you how my adoptive mother became one, and how our family started.

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Three weeks after Marritza brought me in, I gave her a share of my first paycheck, you see, I started working at an ice cream shop near downtown Hollywood. She refused to take it, being the wholehearted woman that she was and still is, but I needed to do it, for myself, I couldn't live under her roof and not help with the expenses, she had already done so much for me, now I needed to do the same, so I decided to help around.

Together, as the days turned to weeks, we continued growing. She would share so many of her journeys with me like she does with you now, that custom of sitting down altogether like the family that you are, it started with me, and a few weeks later, we did the same thing with Patricia.

I met Patricia one day early in the morning, before breaking down, I had to open the shop and as I walked I saw her at a curve, getting out of a car.

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"Wait Patricia was a prostitute?" Asks me, Angel, "no, she was a sex worker" I replied with a rather cold tone. At that moment Marritza walks in and Lilibeth asks her about it "mother, why didn't you ever mention Patricia was a hooker?"

I stand from the couch "HEY" I say with a strong deep voice "you have no idea what any of us had to face back in the late eighties early nineties, but what you are jot about to do is start questioning the life decisions we had to make to survive, so, you either listen to the story with an open mind and free of judgment, or I won't tell you anything else"

They all remain silent, Marritza looks at me "Cole, why don't you keep telling them about the time I got you ready for your first ballroom dance, that is one of my favorite parts after your arrival" I took a deep breath and look at them all "alright then, let's get to it"

As I go to continue, Sandro interrupts me "Cole, but you never finished Patricia's story, how she got to meet mother" I nod at him "you're right, but that is all I will tell you from Patricia's journey, the rest is for her to decide whether or not she wants to share it"

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I saw her that day, I passed her by without a word, I knew what she'd been doing, but who was I to judge, I was a disowned, son of rich parents, blonde hair, blue eye, a white teenager who's the only fault was liking men, so, I was not about to judge from my mountain of privilege.

After a week I ran into her once again, this time, I saw a different woman, she was beaten down, tired, with bags under her eyes, lips cracked from being exposed to extreme temperatures for too long. That day I knew I couldn't walk by her and do anything, so I did the same thing Marritza did with me, I approached her carefully "hi, I'm Cole" I said to her. She looked at me "what do you want?" She asked, in her voice, I could feel the emptiness, so I sat by her side.