<THEME MUSIC>

Kamilah Kashanie (KK): If you’re lucky enough, depending on where you live, you might have neighbors you can count on.

Maybe they bring you your mail, or they have your spare key. And sometimes, they become a bigger part of your life than you expected. In this episode, we’re gonna hear about a neighbor who showed up in the most unexpected way.

It’s the StoryCorps Podcast from NPR. I’m Kamilah Kashanie.

Back in 2016, Glendon “Junior” Booth and his three young kids moved into a new apartment building in Austin, Texas. It was for families facing homelessness and they were the first ones to live there. And then came Jennifer Hidrogo, who’s a single mom of five.

Jennifer Hidrogo (JH): I was a very busy mom and I didn’t take the time at the beginning to really talk to my neighbors. I had been trying to deal with a divorce and raising my kids, but when I slowed down a little bit more is when I got to know them a little better.

Junior would stop me sometimes, he would just want to talk. And I would let him. His wife had left and I knew he was just kind of alone. He just needed a friend. I would give him some parenting tips or I would listen to his stories of his wild childhood. But mostly, it was just about his kids.

KK: Jen also came to StoryCorps with her daughter, Charlee, and Junior’s daughter, Lily Rose, to look back on those early days. You’re gonna hear parts of both of Jen’s recordings.

Lily Rose (LR): You seemed like one of those like cool, young Moms. You just seemed like a very nice, caring person. 

JH: So true. [Laughs].

Charlee (CH): Why do you think our families became close? 

LR: I think it was because of our parents first off, like, they became friends and then we became friends. We would always say, ‘We wish we were sisters.’ 

CH: Yeah. 

KK: Little did they know, that’s exactly what would happen, within the year.

LR: I remember I had a stomach bug and then my dad’s stomach started hurting after, so we thought that I gave it to him. 

<MUSIC>

JH: I saw that my kids would notice Junior wasn’t feeling good, or he would be like, a little bit more like, in pain or something. So they would just, you know, have the girls come in, do their hair or do their nails, just kind of keep them occupied, to also keep Junior not worrying about them. 

LR: And then, um, we went to the hospital because it kept getting worse and they said he had pancreatic cancer.

JH: I was thinking to myself, ‘OK, what do I gotta do to fix this? Let me try to help when he needs to go to the doctor,’ and things like that. 

LR: We would all pack up in the car and we would go to the hospital to go see my dad. We would just like talk and listen to music. And it was very nice seeing y’all’s family just get together to come help ours. 

KK: Over the next couple of months, Junior got sicker and sicker.

JH: And then he made me his medical power of attorney. And I was taken aback a little because I’m like, ‘we don’t know each other that well’. But that was kind of an honor for me. I could see the worry in his eyes everyday. He was scared about what would happen to the kids if he died.

And I remember in one of the conversations that Junior and I had, telling him, ‘Look, I know that this would be a big responsibility, but I would be willing to take them if something happened to you.’ 

When I saw his eyes go from complete anguish to peace, that made me feel good. Like, he trusted me even with his children. You know, I totally meant it, but I didn’t believe that that would happen. And then he found out they were only giving him six months to live. 

KK: Not long after that Junior went into hospice, and his kids went with Jen.

LR: There was one morning, we were gonna go to the hospital to go see my dad. And I remember we got in the car. I was singing to a song and had my eyes closed. And then I remember, like, opening my eyes, looking and everyone’s crying. And I’m like, ‘What happened?’ And so I look at my sister, and she tries to tell me something about my dad, but she couldn’t. And so my brother, he had to stop crying to tell me that my dad passed away and it just felt like the longest car ride ever. 

JH: I think that’s when it hit me. And I was like, ‘I don’t know what to do. Junior, why did you leave? Like, I don’t know what to do.’ I think we all were in this tragic moment, but we were all in it together.

<MUSIC>

KK: After the break, how two families learned to become one. Stay with us.

<BREAK>

JH: Can you tell me more about your dad? Tell us what he was like? 

LR: My dad could never say no to anyone. He was a very caring person. He was really funny. 

JH: Yeah, he was. What about him made you smile? 

LR: Whenever he would like, sing with me and read me stories. Whenever we’d play games, or when he’d tickle me or tuck me in. 

<MUSIC>

JH: He was so in love with his children. I remember him always telling me, ‘I just hate that this is happening to them.’ He felt like he was letting them down, and I would try to tell him, like, ‘It’s not your fault, none of this is your fault.’ He felt bad that they were going through things and that they were going to probably go through more. 

KK: After losing their dad, Junior’s three kids had to adjust to their new reality: living with Jen and her kids, permanently in her two bedroom apartment.

CH: Were you scared to move in with us? 

LR: I would admit I was. I thought my whole life was ruined. I was like, ‘I can’t live without my dad. There’s no way I can live with my neighbor.’ Even though we were close, I’m like, ‘This is still a stranger to me.’ But my fear was when my dad died that I was going to probably end up in foster care and I didn’t want that to happen to me. And I knew that my whole life was going to change. 

CH: Yeah, it made me have to grow up faster because all of a sudden, I had little siblings and I had to step up. It just changed so much and, like, I had to share my mom with three other kids.

LR: And we got raised differently. We didn’t have the same rules. 

CH: It was hard at first ‘cause, you know, we were all living a certain way. And then y’all come in and we have to, you know, change everything for y’all. It was hard adjusting. 

JH: But I mean, we’re doing it, right?

CH: Yeah.

LR: Yeah. Charlie, when did we first start to feel like sisters? 

CH: It was the last day of summer, so we all were up very late at night and we were sneaking food from the kitchen. Like our snacks that my mom got for the first day of school. Just doing what sisters do.

LR: We hid under blankets and ate it together. [Laughs] 

JH: You sneaky kids.

CH: You know, we fight sometimes because we’re siblings. When I talk to y’all, I say ‘Mom’. Like, it’s not like I say, ‘my mom’. It’s like, we’re all just a family. It’s normal. 

LR: I can share anything with you without feeling like, ‘why did I say that’? You know? I can tell you things and trust you with that. 

CH: When we had the adoption ceremony, I was happy ‘cause it was official that you’re my sister. 

<MUSIC>

JH: It was August 16th of 2019. And, I felt love all around it. Like, surrounding the whole day, the whole everything. We literally all felt that, that day. 

LR: I didn’t have my dad there. And I felt like I was moving on. But honestly, I’m not because I still think about him all the time. It was such a happy moment. The best day of my life was getting adopted.

JH: Y’all became officially my babies that day. Y’all had already been that to me. But to have all of y’all there, all my eight kids [laughs], that was beautiful to me. 

CH: I’m just very, very thankful for you and that you’re my mom. I feel like you’re like the backbone of everything. 

LR: I kind of feel the same way. 

JH: Well I’m thankful for that, for sure. It’s been a hard road for all of us. But it is growing us in so many ways, you know? And y’all are the best parts of that. 

LR: I wanna say one last thing. I love y’all, I’m always gonna be there for you no matter what. And I hope I never get to lose y’all. 

JH: I’m here. I love y’all so much. I’m so glad that we get to share this with each other. 

<MUSIC>

JH: Lily Rose used to tell me, ‘Mom, like you saved us’. And sometimes I would think, like, in a way they saved me as well. And I feel like I’ve learned so much more about myself in it. The good, the bad, the ugly, all of that. And it’s also led to me figuring out that this is my calling — is to be a mom. 

My mom always said, ‘You never even liked kids. How did you have so many?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know, mom.’ You know how people say sometimes like they tried to run from whatever they’re called to do? And I can’t, I can’t run. And I don’t want to either.

KK: That was Jen Hidrogo. She spoke with her daughters, Charlee and Lily Rose.

That’s all for this episode of the StoryCorps Podcast. It was produced by Eleanor Vassili and edited by Jasmyn Morris, who’s our Executive Editor. Our technical director is Jarrett Floyd. Our fact checker is Natsumi Ajisaka.  

To see what music we used in the episode, go to StoryCorps – dot – org, where you can also check out original artwork by Lyne Lucien.

For the StoryCorps podcast, I’m Kamilah Kashanie. Catch you next week.