In Her Own Words – “Without Pathways, my life would be very rough. I would have nowhere to go. And I’d probably be in and out of more than one homeless shelter… All I can say is God bless Pathways.” – Marti Kelly
My name is actually Martha Ann Kelly, but my nickname is Marti. My involvement with Pathways began about 20 years ago. After my husband died, I had to go back and live with my parents. I got into a big fight with my mother, and the next thing I know, I’m out on the street and homeless. I was in the Kennedy shelter down by Fort Belvoir for nine months.
I don’t know if it was through my therapist from the Gartner Mental Health Center, or how I got involved in Pathways itself. But now that I have, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. I’ve got a home; I’ve got an apartment. But it’s just wonderful that even though my husband is gone, and I don’t have any kids, I still have a place to live, thanks to Pathways.
Without Pathways, my life would be very rough. I would have nowhere to go. And I’d probably be in and out of more than one homeless shelter and on days when it’s excruciatingly hot, I might be six feet under the ground because I don’t deal well in heat. All I can say is God bless Pathways.
Pathways has brought me a sense of accomplishment. I thought I should stop thinking about the negative things that people think about me and start thinking about the positive things about myself. You know, I started looking in the mirror and saying, look, you’re a good kid. You’re going to do well today. You’re going to have a good day. Ever since I became a Pathways consumer, I’ll admit I still have my downs, but I’ve had more ups than I’ve had downs because of Pathways.
My art is crocheting. I never considered that art until I started bringing the pieces out here to the show [Pathway Homes Summer of the Arts Exhibition]. Last year, my one piece sold for $50. Now I’ve got a bigger one and it sold for $100. My grandmother taught me how to do what is called a granny square and that’s exactly what that is. I like it because I can keep going around. And the more I go around, the bigger and bigger it gets. My family doesn’t like it, but everybody else does. And I’ve had a couple people come by and ask me, how did I come up with these color combinations? That they’re absolutely beautiful!
My grandmother taught me crocheting when I was 13 years old. I would go with my dad to Lowe’s or Home Depot where they have the strips with the paint colors on them. And now I go to places like Hobby Lobby, Michaels or Joann’s and I’ll just stand and it’s like, okay, which color are we going to start with? I’ll grab this shade of blue and then go to a lighter shade or a darker shade depending on which way I want to go. That’s how I’ve done it. I’ve got 250 gallon containers full of yarn.
I call it my stress releaser. Now, I love to do it even if I’m not under any stress. But definitely when I get under stress, I start looking for the needle and looking for the next color that I’m going to do. It eases me, calms me down, and keeps my hands moving. I’ve been crocheting for 51 years so I can do it now and still watch TV. I can multitask when it comes to crocheting. And that’s my love.
Photo: Marti Kelly with Rebecca Traeger who recently purchased her afghan at Pathway Homes’ Summer of the Arts Exhibit.
