The thing about Shannon Watson and her three teenage daughters is that they don’t stop laughing.
Never mind the fact that the single mom has to walk a couple miles — sometimes in the middle of the night — to catch a bus to get to her job as a cook at a catering business. Or that her oldest daughter turns over her paychecks from a day-care job to help support the family.
Or that it has taken her nearly a year to cobble and scrape together the $500 she now has in her savings account.
Still, they all laugh as they count their blessings, as they discuss the brighter days they see ahead or as they recall a visit from Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey.
“We’re not having a great season — but that doesn’t matter,” says Watson, who describes herself as a die- hard Broncos fan, win or lose.
She laughs as she says the words.
That’s a far cry from where she found herself a year ago.
For years, Watson had lived on the edge financially.
“I’ve always lived paycheck to paycheck,” she says. “Get paid. Pay what I can. Money’s gone. Wait for the next paycheck.”
Then an arrest on an assault charge and a breakup with the father of her daughters threw her into turmoil, and when the catering business slowed down and there wasn’t enough work, she couldn’t pay the rent.
That led to two evictions, and she and her daughters — Shanice Cofield, 18; Khadijha Cofield, 16; and Yasmeen Cofield, 13 — found themselves with few options.
Then they found the Crossing, a converted hotel in northeast Denver that serves as transitional housing for men, women and families — offering clean, drug-free rooms and classes designed to help people make the move to permanent housing. The Crossing is operated by the Denver Rescue Mission, one of the agencies that has applied for Season To Share funding this year.
Shortly after they moved in, Watson’s car conked out for good, and she found herself using her daughters’ bus passes to get to work. That led to a moment of self-doubt, a moment when she stood in front of the mirror crying.
“Being evicted twice, I let my girls down — what kind of mother would let her girls get in that position?” she says, explaining how she felt that day.
But in a moment of self-analysis, she turned to her religious faith. And since then, she has been determined to pull her life together for herself and her girls. She has taken classes offered at the Crossing in money management, in relationships, in conflict management and in the habits of highly successful people.
And she has taken financial responsibility for her life, something required at the Crossing: Watson pays $398 a month in rent and utilities, and pays for all of her family’s food.
She is on track to graduate from the Star Transitional Housing Program in June. She’s on the way to saving the $889 that she must have to move out on her own. And she and her girls have hope.
“My long-range goal is to have permanent housing for me and the girls, and to always have money saved for an emergency,” she says. “Always.”
The girls are thinking about college. And Watson is determined that her time at the Crossing will be what she needs to get back on her feet.
“My goal is not to ever come back,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong. I love it. But I don’t want to ever come back.”
As she talks, she laughs again.
Kevin Vaughan: 303-954-5019 or kvaughan@denverpost.com
Denver Rescue Mission
3501 E. 46th Ave., Denver, CO 80216
In operation since: 1892
Number served last year: 659,854 meals; 171,480 nights of shelter; 2,667 food boxes
Staff: 150
Yearly budget: $23.5 million
Percentage of funds directly to clients/ service: 79
