Ep.2 Rohmel: Money is Just Paper

Episode 2 - Rohmel: Money is Just PaperThe stories of what happened to us, and who we became because of it.When Rohmel was fourteen, his mother died of cancer three months after her diagnosis. A week after that, the family friends who'd taken them in said it was time to go. He and his father - a once-celebrated chef who had simply shut down - ended up on a street with the highest murder rate in the country. Eight months. No car, no shelter, no plan. The only white kid on a block where Crips, Bloods, and the Mexican Mafia all wanted him gone. He had a knife fight his first full day.He's sixty-something now, starting a company named after his autistic stepson, training young entrepreneurs in honor of a friend's little boy who died running a lemonade stand. He says he doesn't feel fear. He also can't fully forgive himself for the divorce that cost him three years of his daughter's childhood. Both of those things are true at the same time.A gentle heads-up: This episode includes discussion of parental loss, childhood homelessness, gang violence and near-death experiences, and a parent's grief over time missed with their child. Faith is also woven throughout - as it was for Rohmel, then and now. Resources are below. Please take care of yourself as you listen.On faith in this episodeRohmel's faith isn't peripheral to his story - it's the lens he uses to look at everything in it. He names God directly and often. If that's not your language, his story still belongs to you. This show holds every guest's experience as their own, not as a prescription for anyone else. What I keep coming back to isn't the theology - it's the fact that a boy who should have died every day for eight months came home carrying both a fearlessness most of us will never know and a regret he still won't release. Both shaped who he is. And - not but - he's still becoming.ResourcesIf anything in this episode touched something real for you, please reach out for support.988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline - call or text 988Crisis Text Line - text HOME to 741741Psychology Today therapist finder - psychologytoday.comNational Homeless Shelter Directory - homelessshelterdirectory.orgSAMHSA National Helpline (grief, mental health, substance use) - 1-800-662-4357If you don't feel ready to call anyone, even telling one safe person you're struggling counts.If this episode stayed with youPlease follow, rate, and share. One text to one person is the single biggest thing you can do for a show this size, and it might be exactly what someone in your life needs today. Tag us on socials @anchormomentspod.If you have a story you think belongs here, reach out at [email protected]'m Krista Patrick. This is Anchor Moments.You are already part of someone's story. Carry that with kindness.