My name is Isabella Rose Valentino and I am the founder of UncleSonnys.org. I started Uncle Sonny's so I can hopefully assist someone or a family from not suffering the way my family did when we lost contact with Uncle Sonny. After my Uncle Sonny got divorced, he became a heavy haul truck driver. He absolutely loved driving and traveling across the United States. According to my parents, he would stay in touch over the phone every few months and he loved to stop by every year for a big Thanks Giving dinner at our house. He had a great big appetite and my mom would always look out the kitchen window waiting for his big rig to pull up. Uncle Sonny was very sociable and loved to talk and make new friends. He was always the center of conversation and had plenty of stories to tell from all of his trips through the states.
Even though Uncle Sonny loved driving his eighteen wheeler, it was a very hard and demanding job. My mom says that Uncle Sonny was depressed and missed his family. He also liked to drink alcohol and that was a major problem for him. Holding a job was hard for him and handling his finances was always a struggle. My parents gave him a lot of money over the years but nothing seemed to help him.
A few months went by and Uncle Sonny still had not called, my mom was not able to reach him either. My mom had her hands full working a full time job, taking care of me as a small child, and my papa and dad with all of their various health issues. My family eventually started to fear the worst. A few years went by when my mom received a call from the police letting her know that Uncle Sonny had passed away.
My mom, dad, and family were distraught. My mom felt so guilty that she was not able to find him and help him. My Uncle Sonny had become homeless and lived on a pecan farm, very close to a homeless shelter. The homeless shelter knew his name from his license, but they said he did not know his own name. The homeless shelter never tried to contact any of his family members.
So back to why I started Uncle Sonny's. My hope is this never happens to any other person or family. I am working on an application that will allow homeless shelters to enter information and pictures of the homeless people they are currently helping. This application will serve two purposes: first, if a family has lost contact with another family member, they can search our database just to make sure that person is not homeless; second, people who would like to help a homeless person can pick someone and send a donation to them.
I know being able to reunite a family member may happen very rarely, but I hope that donating to specific people using Uncle Sonny's will become an everyday experience for people worldwide.
Sincerely,
Isabella Rose Valentino