Trey's Story - Family over Everything

Trey's Story - Chapter 10 (Family)

Life back in New Orleans was totally different than when I left. When I left, I saw walls and barriers that confined my dreams. I saw gangs, death, despair and dead ends. But, when I got back to New Orleans, my vision was different.

I saw those same walls. But instead of them being barriers that confined dreams, I saw bricks that needed to be cleaned. I saw bricks that built a foundation to help solidify dreams.

The colors and the gangs representing their hoods were still there. But, I no longer saw gang bangers that I looked up to. I saw young boys who desperately wanted leadership, structure and somebody they could look up to. I saw innocent young men having their innocence taken away by following in the footsteps of those who meant them no good.

Yet, those were the only footsteps they saw in their neighborhood. Nobody who actually made it out of the hood came back to show the young guys different paths. Paths that could get them out of there. I was going to show them the path.

There were still people dying every day from senseless violence. But, I saw the kids crying out for help, looking for a way and a reason to live. I didn't want them sitting around waiting on death to come to their door.

My vision changed, so I didn't see despair in the neighborhood. I saw untapped potential. I saw drug dealers that could use their talents to be successful and legitimate business professionals. I didn't see people without dreams, I saw people with dreams but they had nobody to push them to chase those dreams.

I didn't see dead end streets in the hood that led to nowhere. I saw people that needed directional signs to show them where to turn to get out of the situations and problems. It was not a dead end at all, just a cul-de-sac and all they needed to do was make a U-turn and head back in the right direction.

The day I walked in the door to start my training in the police academy, I was so focused on making a difference. Being an officer was not going to just be a job for me, it was a passion to help my community.

I had always experienced law enforcement from the other side. I knew my passion for the community and experience from living that street life would make me a different kind of cop. Hopefully, I would be one that could command respect from everybody in the hood, and at the same time show enough compassion to help some of them out.

Police training came naturally to me. The awareness and self-defense classes that were taught in the academy, were actually things that were learned in the streets. I quickly became one of the leaders and best candidates in the academy.

Sherry started laying the groundwork for opening a "Bev's House" in New Orleans. She found a great location close enough to the city so we could make some of the boys feel at home, but it was also far enough away from trouble so there was no open invitation.

Sherry needed some repairs to the house, so we spent our evenings there cleaning and repairing the house. I went almost every day after training to help her get the place in order. She had gotten a contract with the Department of Corrections, so all she needed to do was get the place up and going and ready for her first residents.

She loved to paint the building and the rooms bright colors, as a way of brightening up the lives of the kids and their dreams. And the building was coming into shape, it was starting to look like a house of hope, and not the abandoned building we first found.

One day after training I headed to the house to help her. But, I got a call from her telling me not to go to the house, but to come home instead. That was quite strange because every day we met at the transition house in the evenings for the last few months.

I headed to the house thinking what could possibly be wrong that caused her to be home and not at Bev's Place. My mind raced, even though she did not sound like she was in despair when she called.