Life through her eyes: Mother of five bounces back from homelessness, job struggles
For Terah Coleman and her 5-year-old daughter, it’s one of “those” days – the ones where Aliyah is short of breath or showing signs of some other medical emergency that lands them in the nearest urgent care.
Coleman, 40, has become intimately familiar with the Akron area’s hospitals and ERs since the youngest of her five children was born with two holes in her heart. Due to Aliyah’s fragile health, mother and daughter spent nearly every weekend at the hospital that first year.
Since her birth, Aliyah has also been diagnosed with asthma, autism and ADHD.
But Aliyah’s medical issues are only some of challenges the family has faced.
Coleman and Aliyah ended up homeless in 2018. The mom couldn’t find a place she could afford and was on a waiting list for local subsidized housing.
Coleman stayed for four months at the Haven of Rest with Aliyah while her four older children, now ages 14 to 21, were split among various family members.
“It was hard,” Coleman said. “It still is sometimes because I’m still out here struggling because I’m doing all this alone and (trying) to make sure my kids are okay.”
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Today, Coleman and her children are on a much better path.
She’s participating in Jump On Board for Success (JOBS). The nonprofit organization in Kenmore provides young and at-risk mothers with free job skills training to help them achieve career-focused employment and self-sufficiency.
Coleman and the other moms in the program are often judged for things in and out of their control, whether it’s the neighborhood they live in, how often their baby cries or even how young they look.
The Beacon Journal followed two of these women for five months to see life in Greater Akron through the eyes of mothers who are facing — and overcoming — many obstacles.
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Life and loss
“Why did that car go through the traffic light?”
“Because they have a green light.”
“Why?
“Because they have a green light.”
“Why?”
Some days, it seems like Coleman’s only function is to explain the secrets of the universe to Aliyah.
Contrary to how her journey began, Aliyah now mostly lives the average life of a rambunctious and inquisitive 5-year-old.
She is a half yellow belt in karate and plays soccer on a team where Coleman is the head coach. The little girl also helps her mom work in their apartment complex’s community garden.
Normalcy for Coleman and her daughter is only broken for extended periods when Aliyah is seriously ill, like in January 2020 when she had an unspecified virus.
The virus landed Aliyah in Akron Children’s Hospital for a week with a fever that refused to go down. She was unable to speak or eat solid foods, and it took five days before she could walk again.
Luckily, she recovered and returned home.
Through the 911 calls and ambulance rides and sit-downs with doctors, Coleman has been terrified of losing Aliyah.
It would be devastating and life changing and unbearably sad — just as it was when Coleman’s mother, Marian, died three years before Aliyah’s birth.
Coleman was close to her mother. In fact, Coleman and her four oldest children were living at her mother’s apartment when Marian died in 2014. The lease terminated after Marian’s death and they had to move. For the next several years, Coleman and her kids bounced between family members.
Eventually, seeing no other options, Coleman sent her four oldest children to stay with various relatives, while she and Aliyah sought shelter at the Haven of Rest shortly after the girl’s first birthday.
Finding a home after homelessness
After saving up for a security deposit, Coleman and Aliyah moved from the shelter into a two-bedroom subsidized town house in Green in January 2019.
Her oldest son, Amier, now 21, moved in with them at the end of 2020. Last year, she transitioned into a three-bedroom town house within the same complex to give Aliyah her own bedroom as well as a sensory room. These are spaces designed to provide calm, focus and comfort to those with sensory processing problems such as autism.
Nowadays, Amier lives across the street and her other three children visit during holidays and breaks from school.
New job, new problems
After being unemployed for nearly four years, Coleman got a job in October cleaning at her church, The Chapel’s Green Campus, while Aliyah is at school.
The two have attended the church since her daughter was a little more than a year old. Coleman has been volunteering with its bike ministry, backpack ministry and other outreach programs. The job allows her to work around Aliyah’s school schedule and doctor’s appointments.
Coleman’s last job was at a day care center in Akron in 2019. But the mom said management was often frustrated with the amount of time she had to take off work for Aliyah’s medical emergencies and doctor or therapy appointments.
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The church is less than five minutes from her house, a blessing since she has been plagued by car issues. Right now, her 2004 red Dodge is barely drivable with electrical issues, a leaky ceiling, a passenger-side window that cannot be rolled down and strut problems that make it shake on the highway.
During the first week of Coleman’s new job, Aliyah was using her nebulizer more than normal because her asthma was acting up. Six days after Coleman’s first day at work, an Ohio Edison technician came to turn off the electricity, which is needed to power the nebulizer for Aliyah’s breathing treatments.
Coleman explained this to the technician, who extended the shutoff date for 30 days.
She is hoping to get in touch with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Home Energy Assistance Winter Crisis Program to help clear the balance on her Ohio Edison account left over from her first apartment in the complex.
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Progress despite adversity
Coleman is on track to finish the training and receive an Ohio Person In Charge for food safety and sanitation certification through JOBS’ 18-week culinary program.
The mom completed the first six weeks of classes but was unable to finish the remaining 12 weeks of the course because she couldn’t find reliable after-school child care for Aliyah. Her neighbor, who sometimes looks after Aliyah, became unavailable after starting physical therapy for her back. Her next option was Amier; however, he had just changed shifts at work and left his home before Aliyah’s bus even arrived.
Finding reliable, adequate child care is one of the many issues low-income families face and one that JOBS tries to help them navigate, according to JOBS Executive Director Jennifer Herrick.
JOBS offers free child care while participants are in class through its partnership with BrightStart Early Preschool and early childhood education program.
But the class begins at 3 p.m. and Aliyah’s bus doesn’t arrive until 3:30 p.m. Factoring in the 20-minute drive, it was likely Coleman would have gotten to the weekly, 4½-hour class an hour late. She is also reluctant to put Aliyah in the program’s day care because of her autism and ADHD.
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Coleman will resume the last two sections of the course this spring and plans to join the organization’s information technology course as well. She is hoping Aliyah will be on summer break by the time classes resume.
Coleman’s mentor in the program, Tiffany Gerke, was once a JOBS culinary student and now works as mentor coordinator for the organization.
As a mother whose youngest child is clingy and oldest is autistic, one of Gerke's goals for Coleman is to see her instill some independence in Aliyah, who is extremely attached to her mom. Gerke also wants to help Coleman get better at finishing things that she starts.
The evolving question
Coleman’s life is a work in progress.
She knows the future may not be all rainbows and butterflies for her or her family, but the mom said she has no fears about what is to come because they have faith and the support of her church.
Coleman admires the resourcefulness of her children. She believes all of them have some sort of artistic or technological ability, as well as being goal setters and motivated.
“Even this little one back here, too, she knows how to work stuff I didn’t even know she knew how to work,” she said fondly of her youngest daughter.
“Why?”
Coleman and countless others never really stop asking Aliyah’s favorite question, even as adults. The concepts surrounding the question simply become more complicated, and the answers increasingly obscure.
“Why does my car not work?”
“Why is my child so sick?”
“Why did my mom have to die?”
“Why me?”
Coleman has asked them all and, as of yet, no one has explained the secrets of the universe to her either.
Contact Beacon Journal reporter Tawney Beans at tbeans@gannett.com and on Twitter @TawneyBeans.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ohio mother of 5 bounces back from homelessness, job struggles
