Rosey, 51, a resident of Saint Paul Higher Ground, likes to volunteer in her spare time, helping others in the same way that she has been helped during her residency in Catholic Charities housing.

“I volunteer here at Higher Ground every other Wednesday,” she said. “I was volunteering at the Salvation Army down here on Seventh Street until the virus broke out.”

After losing 277 pounds, Rosey has continued to drastically change her life and moved to Minnesota with just one bag and no plans. She said she had seen Minnesota in a dream, and when she arrived on a Greyhound bus with nowhere to call home, a stranger pointed her in the direction of Dorothy Day Center.

There, it was where Rosey felt the comfort that having a roof over your head provides.

“I’m just trying to lay my head somewhere, and they took my information and everything and I was at Dorothy and [it was] baby steps from there,” she said.

From Dorothy Day Center to Higher Ground Saint Paul Residence, she has enjoyed every bit of what she calls her journey.

“I’ve been on this journey going on 13 years. I love it here, ma’am. I don’t got no complaints,” she said.

Her room is her favorite place, and she is happy to have the safety and privacy that many facing housing insecurity long for, and that Higher Ground provides.

“When I come here and I go in my room, that is just like my castle,” Rosey said. “I never had no problem with anybody here.”

She’s done a lot as a resident of Catholic Charities housing, but she still feels she has a lot of stops on her journey ahead of her. She has an extremely generous spirit, a regular volunteer at Higher Ground Residence as well as a former volunteer at Salvation Army.

Even after all her life has brought her way, she is open to trying new and adventurous things.

“One thing I really want to do before I leave this earth is go up in a hot air balloon,” she said. “One day, I will get up there.”

Rosey feels her health and life have changed for the better. After battling arthritis, Rosey now stays active by walking, running and swimming. She is a charter member of the Mile in My Shoes team at Higher Ground Saint Paul Residence and is planning on running in the Minneapolis Aquatennial Torchlight 5K. She loves working out and eating healthy and has made many of these lifestyle changes thanks to stable housing.

“I would have either been eight hundred pounds or dead, so I got a second chance on life,” Rosey said.