Sandy Baker (SB) and Ashley Baker (AB)
Sandy Baker (SB): One of the first places that we lived was a InTown Suites Hotel. And there was nothing sweet about it. It was crazy bad.
Ashley Baker (AB): I woke up the next day and it was my sixteenth birthday and, you know, I really tried to make the best of it.
SB: Our food budget was about $12 every two weeks. And I remember seeing your spine …
AB: … and my ribs …
SB: … And your ribs.
And twice a day, Sam’s Club and Costco would have samples. And so we would get a shopping cart and we would pretend like we were shoppers…
AB: …we were shopping…
SB: And we would go anywhere from three to five times a week.
AB: And I would get dirty looks…
SB: Yeah.
AB: …like, ’why are you coming back? You already had some.’
School was rough. My parents were divorced. I was homeless. Everything just came crashing down. I, I wanted to die.
SB: Yeah.
We’d stayed in the hotel for about nine months, but we ended up living in a tent. And trying to put up the tent that first night.
AB: The ground was hard as concrete. Trying to put it up…
SB: Trying to drive those stints in the ground…
It’s just getting later and later. I said, ’Mama, I could sleep in the car if I had to.’
And you went, ’No! We are doing this.’
SB: We are doing this.
I felt like this was not going to be my moment that I failed. I was going to provide shelter for you that night and we were going to get it done.
And the rest we would figure out. And we did.
AB: I can’t believe that we’ve made it through, what?, ten years later. It’s definitely humbled me.
SB: When everything’s taken away from you, what you’re left with is…
AB: …What really matters
SB: …just what you need. What really matters.
AB: The people that love us the most.
