Easter Seals Disability Services

Anthony 

Learning that your 20-year-old son was diagnosed with stage-three brain cancer could cause severe depression, but imagine if just three months later your wife of 21 years died unexpectedly.

That’s where Anthony found himself in the summer of 2005. Emotional stress from these two life-changing events triggered major depression that cost Anthony his happiness and his job.

Now, four years later, clinging to the memory of his wife, Darcel, Anthony has put his family back together. He is back to work and his son has had a clear MRI. A lot has happened in four years, but Anthony remembers it all like it was yesterday.

Ready to put the pieces back together, Anthony found himself at Day-Mont Behavioral Healthcare, Inc. A case manager helped move Anthony and his two sons into a new home, connected him with a therapist to help him deal with his grief and recommended he visit with some folks at Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley so he could get back to work.

That’s when he met Melany Markland, supervisor of GESMV programs funded by the Montgomery County Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services.

Melany introduced Anthony to Mike Koesters, business services field operations manager for GESMV, who had a temporary opening for a janitor. Anthony knew this position would be a stepping-stone to get back to work in the community. Mike told Anthony that the previous two people had quit, but that he could give it a try. 

“I can’t compare myself to everyone else,” Anthony told Mike. “When I start something, I finish it.”

“He sat in a chair in my office and promised me things I’d heard many times before, ‘I’ll be your best worker,’ ‘I’ll work hard,’” remembers Mike. “He continues to impress me. He is special.”

From cleaning blinds to working at several job sites, to pay increases and supervising his own crew, a temporary job at GESMV has become so much more.

“I’m growing here,” Anthony said. “Goodwill is my family. It goes beyond work. They call to check on my kids, they’ve gone to bat for me and when I’ve needed a flexible schedule, they’ve made it happen.”

It hasn’t been an easy road, and Anthony relies on therapy and prayer to get him through the tough days, like when he looks at his three-year-old grandson and sees his wife.

“I look at where I was and where I am now,” Anthony said. “It’s beautiful. My kids look at me differently now. I got weak without (Darcel). It’s like (my sons) are saying, ‘Dad is back.’ When they smile, it makes me happy.”Anthony says it is all because Goodwill Easter Seals let him prove himself.

“I prayed to God, ‘give me a chance to prove myself’. I was blessed. I get on my knees every night.”