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Season of Sharing Helps Bradenton Father in Life of Grief and Growth
Foundation: Community Foundation of Sarasota County
Steven Bender was living on the streets of Philadelphia in the early 1980s when he met his future wife, Aurea.
She was just a year older than him, and they grew up together.
"Our love just got stronger and better," he says.
"It was the best part of my life."
But then Steven's mother threw him out of her upper-middle-class home after his father's suicide attempt, and he ended up living on the streets with his girlfriend and their five kids, sleeping in cars, on park benches, or under abandoned houses.
Eventually he got a job in manufacturing plants and started his own detailing business.
But his life took a turn for the worse last year, when he was homeless and broke, sleeping in vehicles with his girlfriend and their five kids, shouldering a heavy history of trauma and tragedy.
He asked for help at a Florida nonprofit, and its staff helped him find a job and a place to stay.
He ended up back on the streets again, this time with his girlfriend's family, and they ended up sleeping in their cars and on the streets again.
They finally found a place to stay, and Aurea got a job as a teacher's aide.
Steven finally got a job at a
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