Richie* was born with loving parents, bright eyes, and a weak heart. After enduring his first heart surgery at six days old, Richie spent most of his first year in the hospital. As he grew, he endured bullying at school, and then, in an incredibly painful blow, when Richie was little, his home burned to the ground and he lost everything. Even his beloved family pets.
Eventually, it all became too much. As Richie grew older, he began to isolate himself. He stopped talking to the people who loved him. And he attempted suicide, twice.
Richie’s parents were desperate to help their son, and they brought him to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where they recommended Richie continue outpatient therapy at Nexus-Gerard Family Healing.
Mark Gilbert joined the Nexus family when he was 23. As an adolescent, he drifted into drinking and drugs, then theft. For six years, he was in and out jail, always running, always chasing elusive dreams.
It was a vicious cycle. "I’d get high feel good, go out and do something stupid, then regret it. I got to the point where I hated life…”
Then he heard about Nexus from a cellmate who was sent there. After two days, he came back to jail. “I couldn’t make it,” he told Mark, “But you’d probably like it.” Mark was tired of running; he wanted to turn his life around. So, he decided to try it.
His first contact with Nexus was the family interview where all the residents and staff meet an incoming resident for the first time and decide to accept or reject him. That scared Mark. He’d been rejected all his life.