We gather together: A homeless family’s story

Cristina and Kayla Garcia shared their story with The Lakeville Journal Nov. 19.
Jennifer Almquist
Cristina and Kayla Garcia shared their story with The Lakeville Journal Nov. 19.
Here in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut, where the first frost comes early, and black bears hibernate, the woods are inhabited by hundreds of people sleeping rough.
There has been a 14% rise in homelessness in Connecticut since 2022. There are now 482 “people in need of homeless response systems”, according to Connecticut Coordinated Access Network (CAN), many of them senior citizens.
Cristina and Ricardo Garcia asked a simple question, “Why is there no place in the world for us?”
The Garcias, with their 22-year-old daughter Kayla, are a family who spend each night sleeping in a tent city in Waterbury. They take a bus in the morning to the Gathering Place in Torrington for warmth and showers, then eat their meals together at the Community Soup Kitchen in town. Their fierce desire to stay together as a family has its genesis in years of suffering, deprivation, substance abuse, prison, and escape.
Family is all that matters to them. It is all they have.
“My daughter is shy, so speak quietly to her,” Cristina whispered, explaining further that Kayla and her sister Jessica, who is 18, are on the autism spectrum. Cristina and her girls escaped years ago from her abusive husband. Her girls were then taken from her when they were 12 and 14. Cristina, who has been clean for two years, suffered from substance use disorder. It has been six years since Cristina has seen Jessica.
Her daughter Kayla, her long braids tucked under a watch cap, was wearing headphones to mask out loud shouts of men heatedly discussing the mistreatment of criminals. Kayla’s expressive brown eyes gave away her discomfort. The homeless resource center was packed with women and men in from the November cold; some on cellphones, some waiting with their towels for a warm shower, others quietly sipping hot coffee.
The Gathering Place in Torrington is a daytime drop-in center for the 482 homeless neighbors who live in Litchfield County, Connecticut. The food pantry at Friends in Service to Humanity (FISH) in Torrington serves more than 2,000 people.
There are currently 51 shelter beds in Northwest Connecticut: 16 in Winsted and 35 in Torrington with 5 restricted to veterans. As of today, there will be 30 overflow shelter beds for the winter season.
Cristina Garcia, left, working at the Community Soup Kitchen in Torrington.Jennifer Almquist
At the Community Soup Kitchen in Torrington’s Trinity Episcopal Church Nov. 19, Cristina folded her family’s laundry on the table she had just cleared from the breakfast crowd. She paused to talk and reflect on her difficult journey.
Cristina Garcia: My husband Ricky just started working. He’ll be coming home with literally $72. a week. Sometimes I feel like no one cares. We’ve been clean for two years. We’ve had our ups and downs with our kids. My adoptive mom passed away and my dad passed away in a housefire. So, I don’t have any family. I had an abusive relationship basically, which I escaped with my daughters because it was very bad. My new husband Ricky and I met here, and we’ve been together for almost four years. Because of my earlier situation, my kids were taken from me.
Jennifer Almquist: How old were they when they were taken from you?
CG: They were taken away for six years when Kayla was 14.
JA: During that time were you allowed to have any communication, or hear how the girls were doing?
CG: Like I said, I was in an abusive relationship, and he was in charge. Kayla came back to me last January. It was rough. It is hard when you have no family, nothing to fall back on. Family is just me, my husband and my kids. Now there’s the Gathering Place, and the soup kitchen people that I consider family. They open their arms to us and have been very good, very kind to us.
JA: Did you have housing at some point?
CG: I did, but I lost my housing voucher because I was out of the household for over 20 days. I was incarcerated due to charges from five years ago. I was legally married, but they wouldn’t take in consideration the impact on the girls. The rent was still being paid - it was still being paid the whole time but they took the voucher away. So now it’s like, “do you have a lawyer - somebody to step forward?” Nobody comes forward. We didn’t appeal. We lost everything, so altogether we’ve been out on the street since I got out, so in and out, trying to keep the apartment, but we got notice from the city to quit the apartment, so now we’re on the streets.
JA: Do the charges on your record mean you have to start all over again to get a housing voucher?
CG: We’re just hoping for another voucher.
JA: Is that a lot of pressure when you are trying to stay straight?
CG: It is great to keep my mind straight by volunteering at the Soup Kitchen. When we first started coming here, my husband and I kept telling the boss DJ, if you guys need help, just let us know. You’re helping us out by giving us breakfast, giving us lunch. Suddenly one day the foundation that helps them provide the food wanted to interview somebody that was coming here. Someone that could explain to them the impacts, and how welcoming it is here. They interviewed me, and since that day I’ve been volunteering here. I basically go to the Gathering Place in the morning, take the shower and do laundry, come straight here by 9:30. From that time until around 2:30 I work in the kitchen and prep and serve food. I like it because it’s community. I love being here just because they are so kind to us. My daughter has a hard time talking to new people or getting to know new people. She has a close relationship with someone here now.
JA: What was her living situation when you weren’t with her?
CG: Kayla and Jessica were in foster care. I had no access to anything. Now it’s like starting all new, trying to apply for Social Security, Kayla’s been denied numerous times, and getting a copy of her birth certificate is expensive. That’s what I’m going through right now. She needs help. They say “we can’t help” because they don’t think she has that many issues because she doesn’t hear voices, and she’s not, in their minds, crazy like other people. Kayla does have mental health issues. Jessica didn’t start talking until she was six. It’s just sad that people don’t take in consideration what the impact of situations like being in foster care, or being homeless, are on kids. Especially if you’re a sensitive kid. Kayla is 22 but her mentality sometimes isn’t like her age.
JA: How does Kayla do with the sleeping arrangements and the cold?
CG: No, it’s horrible. All you just have is a tent in the world. People take your stuff; you can’t trust anybody -that’s just how it is. We have a small U-Haul as a storage unit that is expensive. We had to get rid of most of our stuff. It’s just hard, really hard especially with the holidays coming up.
JA: How do you three get warm in your tent?
CG: We layer up with four blankets on, then jackets and sleeping bags. Ricky puts a wooden pallet under the tent, but it’s like sleeping on the floor.
JA: What are you doing for Thanksgiving?
CG: The soup kitchen is not open on Thanksgiving. When you’re homeless you don’t get a break, you don’t get time, the days are endless. Holidays are just another day, not like anything special. We can’t plan anything. We have no way to cook anything. Every day in the woods, it’s just eating out of cans. We may not be able to have a Thanksgiving feast this year, but for Christmas, for my kids and my step kids, there’s no hope of getting them something special. Sometimes I just feel like I’m screwed. I just feel like as much as I try, it’s like I’m trying for what is not possible. It’s hard to keep hoping. These holiday times hurt the most. This is our first holiday back together in six years now that she’s back with us. I want am waiting until my youngest is 21 and graduates this June. For her to be allowed to come home, I must have housing. I feel like it might be a lot to ask, but I just want my family back together.
JA: What are you grateful for?
CG: Kayla loves her stepdad, and he’s very good to us. He walks up the mountain to work at Target. He walks because he can’t drive. We want to get him a bike. Hopefully by December the warming center will reopen. Lori at the Gathering Place helps us so much. She’s an amazing person. I had open heart surgery. They put in a pacemaker that needs replacing, but they can’t do the surgery and then discharge me to the street, so my surgery is being put off. I have seizures, so I need a calm setting. I’m grateful for Lori because she watches out for us. I have met amazing people through her, like the people in this kitchen, for DJ and Bill, and the opportunity to give back, you know. It’s important because I want to make sure I stay on track with my sobriety. Being around positive people helps me. I am trying not to cry. I want to have everyone together for Thanksgiving.
Whenever I need to get a quick but scenic bicycle ride but don’t have time to organize a group ride that involves driving to a meeting point, I just turn right out of my driveway. That begins a 32-mile loop through some of the prettiest scenery in northern Litchfield County.
I ride south on Undermountain Road (Route 41 South) into Salisbury and turn right on Main Street (Route 44 West). If I’m meeting friends, we gather at the parking area on the west side of Salisbury Town Hall where parking is never a problem.
We make a left on Salmon Kill Road and begin the most beautiful five-mile section of the route through rolling hills and beautiful farm country spread out over the length of the scenic valley. Fortunately, the Salmon Kill Bridge has been reopened after a two-year reconstruction — its lengthy closure was a real bummer.
After a short climb and descent, Salmon Kill terminates at Lime Rock Road.
This is the busiest and least enjoyable section of the ride, but lasts only about a mile when we turn left at the Trinity Lime Rock Episcopal Church and follow Dugway Road, with its rolling hills along the south side of the Housatonic River.
We usually stop on the Falls River Bridge to check out the volume of water flowing over the Great Falls. We make a right off the bridge on to Water Street, pass the power plant and Appalachian Trail parking lot, and go under the railroad bridge with a sharp left up a steep but short hill north on Route 126 (Point of Rocks Road.)
Now we’re on a long, flat run that includes a slight right on Sand Road, which we follow all the way to Route 7 at the Canaan Country Club. A left here leaves you on a very busy state highway less than a mile before turning right onto Lower Road — be careful — but there’s plenty of shoulder.
Lower Road runs parallel to the Blackberry River and passes both modern and historic local industry: the impressive lime rock quarry operated by Specialty Minerals Inc., followed by the Beckley Iron Furnace State Park.
Next, we make a left on the appropriately named Furnace Road, across Route 44 — careful again — and face a steep but short climb up Allyndale Rd. Following it to the left begins a long stretch of beautiful farms and distant views of the Southfield and New Marlborough hills. We pick up a lot of speed downhill, zip past Sodom Road, and then a flat stretch to Clayton Road and into Massachusetts.
Continue straight (north) on Polikoff Road, then make a left onto Hewins Road if you want to keep the ride short. Alternatively, you could turn right on Hewins Road and follow it to Maple and into Sheffield to add another 5 to 10 miles.
But, if you’re sticking with the 32-mile ride, turn left on Hewins and take it across Route 7, followed by a left on Main Street and into Ashley Falls’ bucolic town center.
The right turn on Rannapo Road takes us along and across the winding Housatonic River ,where we watch the corn grow from seedlings to more than six feet by late summer.
Next is a left on to the daunting Cooper Hill Road — the steepest and only tough climb of the route. The effort is rewarded by spectacular 360-degree views, including the mountains of the Taconic Ridge and Appalachian Trail to the west.
A left onto Silver Road leads to the payoff: two steep descents, a view of the Twin Lakes on the left, and arrival at stately Taconic Road, home to some of Salisbury’s grandest old estates. A left on Taconic Road offers more rolling farm hills and beautiful views of the Taconic Ridge.
It terminates at Route 44, where we make a right (west) and let the long, steep descent carry us all the way into Salisbury, past the White Hart Inn and back to our starting point at Town Hall.
That’s the route: a relatively flat 1,500 feet of climbing with minimal car traffic. We usually reward ourselves with post-ride refreshments on the White Hart lawn.
I hope you enjoy this local gem of a ride!
Kent Hiteshew is a Salisbury cyclist.
This is a lovely ride that loops from Ancramdale north to Copake and back. At just over 23 miles and about 1,300 feet of elevation gain, it’s a perfect route for intermediate recreational riders and takes about two hours to complete. It’s entirely on quiet roads with little traffic, winding through rolling hills, open countryside, picturesque farms and several lakes.
Along the way, you’ll pass a couple of farmstands that are worth a quick visit. There is only one hill that might be described as steep, but it is quite short — probably less than a quarter-mile.
The ride starts and ends at The Farmer’s Wife Café in Ancramdale, a great place for lunch or refreshments after the ride. (The café is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays). Parking is usually available between the café and the Ancramdale post office. But be courteous — don’t monopolize parking needed by the café’s guests and staff!
Here are the coordinates for the ride:
Turn left out of the parking lot of the Farmer’s Wife onto County Road 8.
At .5 miles, turn left on Crest Lane
At 1.9 miles, turn left on East Ancram Road
At 6.8 miles, turn left on County Road 3
At 7.0 miles, turn right on Wiltsie Bridge Road
At 7.7 miles, turn right on Empire Road
At 10.7 miles, go straight through the village of Copake onto Main Street.
At 11.1 miles, bear left onto Farm Road
At 11.3 miles, turn left on Mountain View Road
At 12.1 miles turn right on County Road 7A
At 12.3 miles, turn left on Snyder Pond Road
At 13.0 miles turn left to stay on Snyder Pond Road
At 14.2 miles, turn right on County Road 7
At 14.8 miles turn left on County Road 27 (This is where there is short hill.)
At 15.5 miles, make a hairpin turn to the left on County Road 27A. (This can be easy to miss so be on the lookout for it).
At 17.5 miles, go straight across County Road 7 onto Four Corners Road.
At 18.7 miles, turn right on Wiltsie Bridge Road
At 19.0 miles, turn left on Snyder Road
At 20.3 miles, bear left onto Roche Drive
At 20.8 miles, turn right on County Road 3
Follow County Road 3 back to Ancramdale and the Farmer’s Wife.
Jeremy Koch is a Norfolk cyclist.
Aerial view of The Shed at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass.
Now is the perfect time to plan ahead for symphonic music this summer at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. Here are a few highlights from the classical programming.
Saturday, July 5: Shed Opening Night at 8 p.m. Andris Nelsons conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra as Daniil Trifonov plays piano in an All-Rachmaninoff program. The Piano Concerto No. 3 was completed in 1909 and was written specifically to be debuted in the composer’s American tour, at another time of unrest and upheaval in Russia. Trifonev is well-equipped to take on what is considered among the most technically difficult piano pieces. This program also includes Symphonic Dances, a work encapsulating many ideas and much nostalgia.
On Sunday, July 6 at 2:30 p.m., the next master pianist, Yefim Bronfman, joins Andris Nelsons as he conducts the BSO in the Shed. Bronfman features in an All-Beethoven program. Hear the Leonore Overture No. 2 followed by the Piano Concerto No. 3, a deeply expressive work that highlights the lively interplay between the BSO strings, winds, and Bronfman’s piano. After intermission, experience the epic Symphony No. 5.
On Saturday, July 12 at 8 p.m. in the Shed, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons join pianist Seong-Jin Cho in celebrating the 150th birth year of Maurice Ravel. Expressive, sincere, and wonderful, Cho’s playing is bound to create a rich evening of music that includes “Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun” (Debussy), “Piano Concerto in G” (Ravel), “Piano Concerto for the Left Hand” (Ravel), and “La Mer” (Debussy).
On Sunday, July 13 at 2:30 p.m. in the Shed, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen will be a superb combination, along with the energetic young Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto. Kuusisto comes from distinguished musical lineage, and he’s equally captivating whether performing classical works or masterfully weaving Northern European folk melodies. The program includes “Tumblebird Contrails” (Gabriella Smith), “Violin Concerto” (Sibelius), and “Symphony No. 5” (Sibelius).
On Saturday, July 19 at 8 p.m. in the Shed, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons present the Piccini’s “Tosca,” with special guest singers Kristine Opolais, Seok Jong Baek, Bryn Terfel, Patrick Carfizzi and the entire Tanglewood Festival Chorus, with James Burton conducting. Expect an unforgettable evening in the Shed, with beauty and brilliance at full volume—star power layered on star power.
Beginning Thursday, July 24 at 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall, the TMC Festival of Contemporary Music kicks off with Ortiz and the Mexican Tradition. This year’s festival runs through Monday, July 28 and features music of Mexican music educator and composer Gabriela Ortiz Torres, Carnegie Hall’s composer in residence for the 2025 season. This superb Festival within a Festival is a proverbial “Box of Chocolates”, where you never quite know what flavor is in the middle until you bite.
On Friday, July 25at 8 p.m. in the Shed, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons welcome Spanish-born violinist María Dueñas. At a mere 18 years old, Dueñas has already won the 2021 Menuhin Competition, including the audience award. The BBC also named her as its “New Generation Artist 2021-2023.” This program includes “Air,” from Orchestral Suite No. 3 (J.S. Bach), and “Adagio from Symphony No. 10” (Mahler) before Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto”,“Calm Sea”, and “Prosperous Voyage.”
On Sunday, July 27 at 2:30 p.m. in the Shed, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons welcome pianist Lang Lang.Lang Lang is squarely in the 100% not to be missed category, and this afternoon the audience will be indulged with “La Calaca” (Gabriela Ortiz) for string orchestra, Piano Concerto No. 2 (Saint-Saëna), and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 6, Pastoral.”
On Saturday, August 16 at 8 p.m. in the Shed, the Boston Symphony Orchestra join with German conductor and concert pianist Anna Handler and young Italian-German-American violinist Augustin Hadelich to present the Brahms’s “Tragic Overture,” “Symphony No. 4” (Schumann), andTchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. The constellation this evening looks to become especially bright, colorful, and passionate. Plan to come early and stay late.
On Sunday, August 17 at 2:30 p.m. in the Shed, the Boston Symphony Orchestra welcomes conductor Dima Slobodeniouk, who was born in Moscow and settled in Finland.Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet is another musician not to miss; every appearance is fresh and lively. This program includes “Threnody (In Memory of Jan Sibelius)” by William Grant Still, “Piano Concerto No. 2” (Liszt), “Valse triste” (Sibelius), and “Symphony No. 3.” (Sibelius).
The 2025 Tanglewood season promises to be another exciting one. A quick note: the BSO has faced issues with ticket resellers posing as official sources and charging inflated prices. To avoid this, be sure to purchase tickets in advance only through bso.org.
SHARON — James H. Fox, resident of Sharon, passed away on May 30, 2025, at Vassar Brothers Hospital.
Born in New York, New York, to Herbert Fox and Margaret Moser, James grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. He spent his summers in Gaylordsville, Connecticut, where he developed a deep connection to the community.
James attended Millbrook School, Ripon College, and the Culinary Institute of America in New Haven, Connecticut.
He proudly served in the Navy and his dedication to his craft led him to later own several restaurants, including the renowned Fox & Fox in Gaylordsville, and most recently, Panini Cafe in Kent. He went on to become a staple at the Cornwall Farmer’s Market, known for his delicious soups.
James lived in Sharon, for 20 years, where he cherished the serenity tending to the gardens and property. Perpetually in motion, he filled his days with gardening, tending his property, and engaging in hobbies such as collecting model cars, woodworking, and perfecting his culinary creations.He never hesitated to take on a new project, no matter the scope.Not many 82-year-olds can say they fully remodeled a bathroom single handedly.After a full day of work, one of his greatest joys was relaxing at the end of the day in front of the fireplace.
James is survived by his constant companion of 22 years, Kathie Dolan; his two sons; Adam Fox of Montpelier, Vermont and Emmett Fox of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; his brother, Tom Fox of Phoenix, Arizona; his brother-in-law, Gary Sarachan of St. Louis; and several nieces, including Sydney Fox Sarachan of St. Louis, Carrie Fox of Phoenix, and Amanda Fox of Columbus, Ohio. He also leaves behind his grandson, Aidan Fox of New Hampshire, extended family, Erin Dolan, Megan Mollica, Rory Dolan, his dog, Django, and his cat, William.
James will be deeply missed by all who knew him. His unique sense of humor and culinary excellence will live on in the hearts of his family and friends.
The Kenny Funeral Home has care of arrangements.
All services are private.