TM People – meet Chris...
Chris and Jem are TMFG’s most recent successful home loan applicants.
“Really, I was lucky to be alive.” Chris describes a time in his late twenties spent in homeless shelters up and down the north coast.
While mortgage repayments may seem a burden for many, for this 47year old railway maintenance worker, they are a dream come true.
When Chris lost his mother in his mid-twenties he suffered a depression that seemingly derailed his life.
“I just couldn’t get myself to work in the morning, and the thought of doing an 8hr day all of a sudden seemed impossible.”
Chris loved working, and having held down a full-time job in plumbing since his teens it wasn’t in his character to not front up. But sometimes the soul has its own ideas.
Struggling financially and socially, and not wanting to burden family, Chris, the youngest of three, left his home in south-east Melbourne to tend to his wounds in his own way and time.
Chris trekked north to Cairns where he stayed for nearly a year, before winding his way down to Sydney via Brisbane. Life was tough through this period, but in the most inspiring of ways, Chris recalls it now with a positive spin,
“It could have been a lot worse.”
Chris admits ‘living rough’ and sleeping in homeless shelters was scary at times, but also that he found solace in the goodness of others, describing the people he shared his digs with as,
“Hard done by, but beautiful people.”
It was in a Sydney hospice that Mission Australia helped Chris to rebuild his foundations. With guidance, Chris found his way back into the workforce and permanent accommodation and slowly started to pull things together.
“I had good people around me in Sydney. It had been years since I was in contact with family and friends in Melbourne.
I just didn’t want to worry them until I was through the tough times.”
A few years after he left, and with the ‘tough times’ a little further behind him, Chris returned to Melbourne for a holiday and to check in with family. On the same trip, an old school friend offered Chris a job in the Railways in Melbourne – a sign for him to return home. And it wasn’t long since he returned that he met wife, Jem.
His first relationship since he’d lost his mum almost a decade earlier, for Chris, their meeting was another positive sign he was on the right track.
“Jem says our mums brought us together.”
The romance blossomed and the gorgeous pair are now 5 years husband and wife. Chris and Jem share a love of family, work, holidays and the mighty Richmond Tigers and, since just recently, they also share their very own townhouse in Laverton.
“I was off the rails back then, I truly never thought I’d get here!”
Chris says of where he is today.
And what is his dream for the future?
“Just working, paying off my house and spending time with Jem. Oh and another Richmond premiership.”
Might seem a simple dream to some…
“It’s more than I ever thought I’d have.”
To young Chris, a resident of a Sydney homeless shelter, unemployed, no family, no partner, without a cent to his name, paying a mortgage is a beyond his wildest dreams.
And how did he get here?
“I just didn’t give up. Always paid my bills and rent on time, no matter what my situation was. I was never in debt.”
“I always make the most of what I’ve got.”
A great lesson for all of us, and also a reminder it’s never too late to build your dream, no matter how distant it feels.