When talking about her childhood, Geri Patterson says, “Growing up, I was in a stable home with my mother. However, when I was 14, I began to act out and moved between my mother and my father, just whoever was able to handle me at the time!” She went on to say, “I wouldn’t listen; I thought I was grown; I wanted to do what I wanted to do.”
Geri dropped out of school her senior year, got her GED and worked. “I have always worked. I got my first job when I was 14 years old.” For the past six years, she has worked at the Greenville County Detention Center as a Detention/Transport Officer.
Geri met her husband whileworking at Frigidaire. They were together for several years, but divorced five years ago. Geri and her four daughters are currently living in a two-bedroom, one-bath duplex off Whitehorse Road. Because of the way the duplex is built, the bedrooms do not get heat or air. Even so, the power bill is over $200 per month!!!
Geri started in the Habitat homeownership program on April 4, 2018. She had completed the application a year and a half earlier, but she set it aside because she felt she wasn’t ready. Geri gets excited when she talks about everything she has learned in the program—how to budget, how to do home maintenance, how to improve your credit….
When thinking of her new home, Geri shares, “We’ve already decided this will be ‘our home.’ This is for the girls. They won’t ever have to worry about having a place to go. You don’t realize what you take for granted until you don’t have it.”
Welcome home, Geri, Jasmine, Brendasia, Genesis and Aviana!!!