Ralph, a Navy veteran, calls it a “spiral.” An unfortunate series of events that began with a loss of a 17-year job from a federal agency in 2019.
The Covid-19 pandemic hit and no one was hiring. He soon ran out of rent money, and struggled to keep up with crippling child support payments. He lost his apartment, lived in a car in a highway rest stop, and landed last April at Jan Peek House, a service of Caring for the Hungry and Homeless in Peekskill.
Ralph, who asked that his last name not be used, is spending his first Veterans Day in a shelter for the homeless. While he isn’t happy this happened to him, he feels fortunate that places like Jan Peek House exist to help those who are temporarily down and out.
His advice to others who find themselves in a financial spiral: “Keep striving. Don’t dwell on your situation. Do not look back. It can make you depressed.”
“Don’t ever give up,” says this 53-year-old Yonkers native, who never thought he’d find himself living in a shelter.
This mental toughness, characteristic of many veterans, is what got Ralph through five years of bad times. Since leaving the Navy in 2001 after eight years, he has held jobs with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as a supervisor with the Transportation Security Administration; Amazon; American Express; and his current position with a Putnam County pharmaceutical company. But he still finds it hard to make ends meet. “There’s just very little money left to support anything on my own,” he says.
A Hopeful Future
But his spiral seems to be coming to an end, with a promise of his own apartment very soon, and training to become a truck-driver. “I hope by February I’ll be driving a truck.” He says he sought this type of new career to fulfill wanderlust, which he attributes to years abroad in the service. “I wanted to find a job where I’m always on the go,” says the divorced father of three girls.
“For the most part, almost everyone I know from the service is very successful, hard-working, and dedicated to their families.” He adds: “We’re adaptable, determined, bull-headed. Give us a job, tell us what you want us to do, and we figure it out.”
In the Navy, Ralph was stationed in Japan, working as an operations specialist and airborne intercept controller. While in the service, he got his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland in Asian studies and business management. He joined the Navy after working for a few years after high school. “Being in the service was something I always wanted to do,” he says.
During his service abroad, he married a Japanese woman and had two daughters. After returning to the states with his family, his wife yearned for Japan and went back home with her daughters to care for an ailing mother, and never returned to the United States. Ralph’s two older daughters are in their 20s, and another who is 7, living with her mom in Fishkill. He also has a granddaughter, 5, and Facetimes his daughters frequently.
After living with relatives, which he says gets old, and ending up in his car, Ralph got tired of living this way and reached out to veteran services, which referred him to Jan Peek House. “I didn’t want to call initially. I was too proud. But I’m glad I did and it has worked out well.”
Commemorating Veterans Day
Veterans Day is a work day for Ralph, but he looks forward to changing his social media profile picture to something patriotic, and taking advantage of the free food offered to veterans that day. “I’ll commemorate the day by grabbing a donut from Dunkin, probably have breakfast at Wendy’s, and dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, which is giving free wings and fries,” Ralph says with a smile.
He looks back fondly on his years in the service and the friendships he has kept. “I say to everyone, ‘Thank you for your service.’ Never give up.”
