Marissa Quiroz, 26, is a resident of the Salvation Army Center of Hope Emergency Shelter, and a married mother of two.
Quiroz is originally from St. Louis, but she has lived in South Carolina, Illinois and Mexico. Her son, Julian, is 5 and her daughter, Yasmin, is 2 months old. Quiroz's sister and mother both live in Jefferson City.
Before Quiroz came to the Salvation Army shelter, she lived with her sister, but had to move. Both women were pregnant and each already had children - they needed more room.
"I was living in Jefferson City with my in-laws, but it did not work out. So then I moved in with my sister," Quiroz said. "I was having a baby, and she was having a baby. She had her baby one month before I had mine, so there was just no room. My mom was staying here, and she told me why don't I see if they have room for me here, too."
The Salvation Army did have room for her and helped her mother, Victoria, find a place of her own. The Army also provided her with school supplies, clothes and baby supplies for her daughter, including a stroller and diapers.
"I came from Mexico, and it was hot. It is always hot in Mexico," Quiroz said. "So all I brought for my son was what we had, shorts and nice summer clothes. I had no winter clothes for him, and he had to go to school. I had like no pants, nothing. There was a donation that came in, and I got everything - pants, shoes, just everything."
Her husband lives in Mexico, and she visits him regularly. But, because she is not a Mexican citizen, she can only stay for six months at a time, she said. She said her favorite thing to do when seeing her husband is going to English-speaking movies because it is $2 for a ticket, and she and the family are usually the only people in the theater. This means they can be as loud as they want, which is great with children, she said.
Quiroz, though described as fiercely independent by Salvation Army officers, has had to depend on help from others after undergoing three major surgeries in two days to remove water and blood clots from her brain. After the procedures, she lost the abilities to talk and walk, as well as her hair and most of her memories.
"I had water on the brain, hydrocephalus, and it was like three years ago," she said. "A normal person has two teaspoons of water on their brain, and I had two cups. ... Some things I remember and some things I don't, but then it will come back to me later if I think about it hard enough, or maybe it doesn't come back to me. Maybe I tell myself it happened so many times that I believe it."
Quiroz said her mother and the workers of The Salvation Army have greatly helped her.
Quiroz now spends a lot of her time helping at the shelter, but she has not taken any leadership positions because she will only be there temporarily, said Rachel White, lieutenant for the Salvation Army.
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