Contributions
Donate Online

Down and Out In The City Different

Geraldo Blakemore knows a little something about the ups and downs of life.  A soft-spoken man with a polite, gentle manner, Geraldo was raised in Memphis, the only child of older parents.  He loved music and children and became the first person in his family to graduate from college.  He taught music to elementary school students until he had to stop work to care for his ailing parents.
            After his parents died, Geraldo’s stepsister invited him to move to Santa Fe and live with her.  After one week, she put him out.  Thousands of miles from his home, still grieving from his parents’ death, and unbeknownst to him, suffering from an illness called schizophrenia, Geraldo felt desperate. He stayed with friends - and friends of friends – people he knew from his job at Walgreens. He paid them what he could and moved on when they asked him to.

            One day, while waiting for a bus to take him to work, a patrol car circled around the bus stop area several times. Finally a police officer got out of the car and asked Geraldo for his id, which he did not have. The officer ran a check through his database and although he could find no prior or warrants for arrests, he said Geraldo had been loitering and took him off to jail.  Geraldo used his one phone call to notify Walgreens he would not be going to work. 
            Because there was no one who could post bail for him, Geraldo spent the next month in jail.
            It’s very difficult for Geraldo to talk about his time behind bars, waiting for an appointment see a judge.  All he can say is:  “Nothing like that had ever happened to me. I had never been in trouble of any kind. I was devastated”.
            Finally his day in court arrived. The judge ordered him released him from jail and referred him to a mental health facility to evaluate his condition.  The evaluator recognized that Geraldo was suffering from a mental illness and referred him to The Life Link for services.
            By the time he reached The Life Link, Geraldo says: “I was I was at rock bottom. I was living in my friend’s garage.  I was suffering from deep depression and serious schizophrenia. Voices were telling me to kill myself.”
            A Life Link social worker helped Geraldo collect his belongings from the garage and moved him into permanent housing on The Life Link campus.  Geraldo saw the staff psychiatrist who prescribed medication for his schizophrenia and depression.  He was assigned a therapist and joined groups that helped process his recent traumas and foster his flagging self-esteem. On his own, he found part-time employment with a local department store and a landscaper.  He joined a new Life Link group called The Clubhouse (link) that provides adults with mental illness a venue for positive social interactions and opportunity to learn new skills.   The Clubhouse turned out to be exactly what Geraldo, an active person by nature, was seeking. 
            Day by day Geraldo felt his life improving.  Eventually the time came when Geraldo and his residential counselors agreed that he was ready to live independently. “It was time for me to give it a try.”  Through a Life Link community integrated housing program, he found his apartment, a new unit close by The Life Link so could continue with his services and connection to the Clubhouse.
            Independent living was a big step, acknowledges Geraldo. His Clubhouse buddies helped him move to his new digs.  Geraldo did the rest.  “The most fun was fixing up the apartment to make it my own. “ When the apartment was ready, Geraldo proudly invited his friends over to see his new space and cook a meal for them.  His self-esteem has blossomed in his new independent life.  Other Clubhouse members see him as a role model.
            Now feeling more stable and secure, surrounded by friends and support staff, grateful that his past ordeal is behind him, Geraldo thinks about giving back.  In recent months, he has shared his story in public with various groups in hopes that others can find hope from his experience.  For the future, he dreams of once again teaching music to the gift of music with children.

2325 Cerrillos Road Santa Fe, New Mexico
Tel 505.438.0010 • FAX: 505.438.6011