Sean & Gail Turner

“We suffered from many of the same illnesses and injuries; we became a team, fell in love and then came hope.” Sean said talking about his wife Gail. After nearly two decades of alcohol and drug addiction, Gail had had enough. “Homelessness is the worst experience in the world. You don’t know where you are going, what you are going to eat, where you are going to sleep, where to take shower and being disabled just made it worse.” Depression set in and she became suicidal: that’s when she was sent to John George Hospital. “I had a choice to return to the madness and eventually my death. I chose life!” Gail said. Sean started using drugs and alcohol at age 11. He suffered major consequences as a result, homelessness, jail, a stay in a mental hospital, prison and a near fatal car accident.

In 2005, the couple met during their individual stay at BOSS’s South County Sober Housing Project in Hayward. “He invited me to AA meetings; sometimes we would go three times a day, and then we would also go to church,” Gail said. After six months the couple had become their own support system and they were ready to move out on my own. With their combined income, they found a Hayward apartment at market rate rent. “Although we really need subsidized housing and it’s a real struggle, we are doing the best we can.” Gail said. The couple celebrated their one year anniversary, August 11th, 2007.

Recently, Sean helped Gail take care of her ailing 100 year old father who lived in the same apartment building as the couple. “Gail’s father was able to see his daughter clean and sober for the first time in her adult life,” Case Manager Jacquelyn Myrick said. The love of their life is their one year old grandson, Baby Sean. The baby and his mother were very sick at birth and Sean and Gail were there every day of his seven week hospital stay. Gail would like to record a gospel album and open a homeless shelter and Sean would like to help Gail and to always be there for his family.

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