The DePew family begins again

The numbering of the mailboxes at the entrance to Jackson's hard-scrabble Barks Mobile Home Park is as unpredictable as some of the lives inside. Just so there's no mistake, "DePew Family" is written in glitter and glue on a piece of construction paper pasted next to the front door of trailer No. 57.

Randy, Diana and their young sons John and David DePew moved here two weeks ago. They're just glad to be here.

"Some people say this is Jackson's 'hood, but I like it," Randy says unapologetically.

Few of the things in their new home are theirs, aside from the TV and stereo, some toys, and a Spider-Man blanket serving as a curtain. Their wedding picture hangs on a wall next to the head of a deer Diane confides Randy didn't shoot. Project Hope, a Cape Girardeau organization that coordinates mentoring through churches, provided some furniture. The Community Caring Council paid their $350 first month's rent. Now they're on their own.

A month ago the DePew family was living without utilities or water in a South Hanover Street house in Cape Girardeau. They iced down their perishables in a cooler. They took cold showers before the water was turned off. Randy ran an extension cord out to the dome light of his 1974 Dodge van when they needed a little electricity. At night they lived by candlelight.

The three-bedroom house's living room was gutted, uninsulated and had exposed wires. Randy says their utility bills were more than $500 a month. When their utilities were finally shut off they owed AmerenUE $2,500,

Like many of the families Project Hope helps, the DePews have struggled to keep up in life, never mind getting ahead.

They moved to South Hanover Street when they were evicted from a different mobile home in Cape Girardeau. They were evicted when Randy was fired from his job as a maintenance man at the mobile home park. The owner gave them three days to move out. They did, not knowing that any landlord who wants to evict a tenant is required to get a court order.

They needed to go somewhere. They ended up on South Hanover Street, an area of Cape Girardeau notorious for crime and drug dealing. They paid $100 a week to live in a house already filled with junk when they moved in.

Living there frightened them. Someone threw a bottle through one of their windows. At night they sometimes heard gunshots in the street. "It just wasn't safe," Randy says.

"When I'd go to work and she was over there I didn't know what would happen."

Diana shakes her head, agreeing, "I was on the edge."

For a year they tried to leave the house on South Hanover Street. "You get lost in the moment," Randy says. When they refused to pay their rent unless the landlord fixed up the house, they were told to get out. Once again, they did.

---

Forty-five-year-old Randy grew up in Ironton, Mo. He worked in his family's construction and concrete business until they sold it in 1982. "Then I went out in the world," he says.

He worked in the oil fields and as an over-the-road truck driver. He went to work for his parents again when they bought the Kozy Korner Cafe in Ironton. After he and Diana married they moved to Cape Girardeau. That was nearly four years ago.

His long hair and the leather vest and jeans he wore to work last Monday say Randy goes his own way. He had tattoos when tattoos weren't cool.

Since moving here he has worked for Gilster-Mary Lee in Perryville, Mo., and at Procter & Gamble and Repair Masters closer to home. P&G fired him for not showing up for work. Their Blazer's engine blew up, he explained.

He was fired from his job as a maintenance man at the Star-Vue Mobile Home Park in Cape Girardeau, he says, when he went into rehab. "I had an issue with alcohol and drugs." He says he completed the program at the Gibson Recovery Center in Cape Girardeau and hasn't had any problems with substance abuse since.

One day while working for a concrete company he hurt his back at work and went home for the rest of the day. When he returned to work the next day he was told he wasn't needed anymore.

He shrugs off the firings. "I've quit better jobs than some people have had," he says.

Now he's working for the company that is transforming the old Hecht's building in downtown Cape Girardeau into a nightclub called Club Moxie.

---

Both Randy and Diana prefer living in house trailers. Life has been much worse for both.

Diana walks around the mobile home's kitchen with 10-month-old David perched on one hip. At 27, she is much younger than Randy. She cleaned houses for a while but quit when she had trouble finding baby sitters.

Randy likes his latest job, but his Dodge van keeps breaking down. He still thinks it's good transportation, especially since it only cost him $185.

The DePews have much in common with other people Project Hope wants to help in planning to build Magnolia Place, transitional housing to be located in downtown Cape Girardeau (see related story). They needed a place to go. They could use help managing child care and their finances. Addictions sometimes drag them down. Most of the people Project Hope helps have been up and down many times.

Towheaded John has quickly made friends at the Jackson trailer park. Later this month he will start first grade at Orchard Elementary School. The DePew family will begin again.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137