Thank you to Ryan and Hilary Green who’s home sale has helped provide emergency and transitional housing for homeless families and support for our marginalized neighbors in Whatcom County through the work of Habitat for Humanity. Because of friends like you who have chosen 2roofs as their Realtor over 200 people in need have been helped to find housing.
Here’s the story of Hernandez family, a family helped through Habitat for Humanity.
Hernandez Family - Telegraph Road
“Now that it’s becoming real, we’re super happy.”
Born and raised in Mexico City, Rodolfo “Rudy” Hernandez first came to the U.S. to visit family in California. He decided to settle there. Rudy, who was single at the time, eventually decided to come to Washington with his younger brother to look for better work. They hoped to eventually settle in Alaska. “I read the Bellingham Herald when I was living in California. I saw a story saying that they needed people in Alaska for the fishing industry,” said Rudy. “But my English was zero! Nobody would hire me with no English and no experience. So, I ended up staying in Bellingham. I worked on farms and in orchards. I followed the crops, you know.
“Once we got to Bellingham, we started looking for work in the city, because we were both from the city. I applied to all the canneries. No luck at first. Eventually, though, I got work in the canneries. We worked a lot in construction, too, and in lumber mills. We also worked in the strawberry fields,” he added.
He and his brother didn’t know anyone in Bellingham. He slept in his car first for three months, in winter. For showers, he and his brother went to the marina. “For 25 cents they’d give you 10 minutes in the shower. We’d shower, shave, and get ready to work. It was one day at a time—we struggled a lot.”
Then Rudy’s brother returned to California and Rudy was alone. Eventually, he made a friend working in a cannery, and he moved in with the friend and 10 other people in a small apartment. Through Rudy’s church (“I always go to church”), he met another family, and he moved in with them in Everson, Washington.
“I then met someone who rented me a trailer, well, more like a camper, just for one or two people. That was when I started working in construction. He was my friend, boss, and landlord. Everything! While working in construction, I started to learn more English.
“It was back and forth: construction, then canneries, then construction,” Rudy said. “One year I filled out 16 W-2’s! I worked at whatever was available back then. I like to work, and I’ve worked since I was nine years old with my dad. I came here to work, so I looked for work. I worked from the very first day I moved here.”
Rudy eventually married his wife, Maria, in Mexico. They met at his church group while they were both in school, before he came to the U.S. (they lived a few blocks from each other). For four years, they wrote letters every week and spoke by phone. Back then, it sometimes it took almost a month for letters from Maria in Mexico to reach him in Bellingham. He’d send four letters for every one he’d receive. They’ve known each other for over 30 years and have been married for 27 years!
“Maria applied for her visa when we decided to get married. When she first came here, she traveled as tourist. Once she was here, we applied for her residency. I was already a resident,” added Rudy. “We had to wait for a long time.” Together, they got a one-room apartment near Western Washington University. Again, sharing a bathroom and kitchen with others.
Fast forward to three kids and their family of today. Rudy still works in construction. They live in a rented mobile home, where they’ve been for over 20 years. Rudy learned about Habitat when he was working in the lumber mills.
It took about three years for him to learn that they had been accepted into the Habitat program. Rudy has done all their volunteer sweat-equity hours so far working at the Habitat Store. One of our many successful partner family homebuyers, they’re waiting for their home, part of Phase 1C of the Telegraph Townhomes Project.
2roofs' Realtors work hard to make your home buying or selling experience enjoyable and give part of every commission to help house a person in need. See more stories.