Life: A Persistent Reliable Mentor

Don't always get the print edition of newspapers these days because news happens fast and the internet is constantly updated.

But today, I picked up a Los Angeles Times and was drawn to the "Column One" story on the left side. Very moving and inspirational to read about the dedication of Thomas Higgins in his mentorship of Milena Slatten and the work of Covenant House. Excerpts:

CONSIDERING that her mother tried to throw her out a third-story window when she was 3, and that she spent five years in an orphanage in the destitute former Soviet republic of Georgia and five years in American foster homes, a psychiatric hospital and a lockdown facility for troubled kids, Milena Slatten, 20, is faring incredibly well.

Two years ago, she was homeless, but now she's earned her GED and works full time as a clerk in the Los Angeles County courthouse. She has no criminal record. She doesn't drink. She doesn't smoke or do drugs, even prescription medications. When she was a child, the social workers had filled her with a cocktail of mood stabilizers that left her days blurry. Now she'd rather be depressed than zonked out.

Most important, she has a friend - an impressive, reliable one - which is a rarity for former foster kids. He is Thomas Higgins, 65, a career prosecutor responsible for almost all the arraignments in the city of Los Angeles. She calls him Tommy.
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HIGGINS knows what it's like to face a furious adult. His father, a Sacramento Valley mechanic and a farmer, never seemed to like him much. The oldest of six, Higgins was a smart-alecky kid, and his father beat him.

When he was 11, there was an incident so violent that his mother finally pulled his father off. "I was crying. I was scared. I just said, 'Never do that to me again.' I threatened him, which was sort of stupid for an 11-year-old kid in his underwear who'd just been disciplined harshly, but to my dad's credit, it was the last time he ever punished me physically."

Higgins thinks often of his father, who died in 1995. He still wonders why he was so brutal. Higgins himself became the kind of kid who never backed down from a fight. He became a cop and eventually a lawyer, and learned to channel his aggressiveness through the law.

Helping Milena is a way of helping the child he once was, but the pair generally don't dwell on bad memories. Most of their time is spent bantering and teasing each other, like rebellious schoolkids.
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In a crowd of several hundred formerly homeless kids, she is the only one wearing a business suit. Milena is also trying out her first pair of high heels and holding on to Higgins' shoulder as she totters about. When she begins twirling unsteadily on her feet, she teases, "Catch me, Tom, I'm falling!"

She insists that Higgins stand in the front row, center, so in his black suit, black shirt and lime-green tie, he'll be easily visible from the lectern.

She is the first resident from Covenant House to speak. Reading from her neatly typed speech, Milena is poised and self-assured. She talks about her past, her stint on the streets. "Because of my difficulty in trusting people I do not know, I found it hard to acknowledge that I needed help," she says, adding that she's learned how to "see beyond what is in front of our eyes."

Afterward, she rushes to throw her arms around Higgins. Clearly proud, he leans down to whisper, "I started to tear up a bit, kid."

Be sure to read the whole article. Check here to read about Covenant House in Hollywood.