“Going through this program with all of this help and support, I feel like I’m set up in a way that I can live as big as I want to. I want to live extra big because my son didn’t get to. I want to do extra things in honor of him and to live some life that was taken away.”
In the span of four years, Melodie* lost everything. Her job. Her house. Her health. And three loved ones: her mom in May 2025 and in October 2025 her grandmother. On the day her grandmother passed, Melodie’s son was riding his motorcycle on his way to comfort her and was killed.
“I had lost so much…I didn’t feel like I was ever going to dig out of this hole. I just didn’t have enough left in the tank to get back to life.”
Melodie recalls the last few years as some of the worst in her life, tracking it back to losing her job in 2021 and subsequently becoming homeless.
“I didn’t have a lot of hope or any confidence. It completely eradicated my foundation of who I thought I was.”
Melodie spent the next 14 months getting back on her feet. Then, another setback. She was diagnosed with cancer and faced 16 months of treatment and surgery.
“Then literally a week before my mastectomy, my mom had a seizure and was diagnosed with some pretty serious stuff.”
Melodie finished her treatments over the next five or six months and had trouble finding a job. She recalled the true loss that really took her out: the sudden death of her mother.
“We didn’t expect it to happen that quickly and I was just starting to get back into life again. when my grandmother died and my son…was killed on the same day.”
Two weeks after her grandmother and son had passed away, Melodie was scrolling on Facebook to numb the grief and get out of her own head.
“[That’s when] I saw a Facebook ad for entry level jobs for women in renewable resources and it caught my attention,” Melodie recalled. “I felt so disconnected from life and then I saw that [Fresh Start] ad and I felt a little bit of hope.”
What caught her attention wasn’t just the opportunity; it was one word: entry-level. It meant she didn’t need a background in renewable resources.
Four weeks after their deaths and a new door had opened; she was officially enrolled in the Clean Energy and Trades program. It would have been easy for her doubts to win: was she too old? Could she physically do the job? How would she be treated in a male dominated field? Then she made herself a promise.
“I’ve lost so many opportunities because I was afraid. Making decisions from a place of fear has not worked in my life. I decided I wasn’t going to do that again. I’m going to do this in spite of the fear. I’m just going to take the fear with me.”
As she turned her attention to the program, life around her didn’t slow down. Two weeks in, she battled an eviction notice in court and had to borrow money to keep her home.
“The way to not have those issues anymore is to have a great income, have a future, and have something to build on. If I let this obstacle stop me from that, I am doomed to do that forever and I’m tired. I’m done struggling.”
Then around three-months after her grandmother and son’s deaths, Melodie’s cohort practiced First Aid and CPR. She kept wondering, ‘Is this what they did to try and save my son?’
And coincidentally, three of the four electrician unions’ offices took Melodie to sites that reminded her of her son. One site they visited was across the street from the hospital where he died, another was next door to the job where she used to drop him off.
“It was constant triggers of my loss and what I was dealing with. I’m most proud that even with all the emotion and the intensity of feeling that I had, that I still focused on what I was doing, did what I needed to do, and got through the program.”
The program brought Melodie a newfound sense of hope and energy that she hadn’t felt in years. She said that without Fresh Start she would be hopeless. Before the Clean Energy & Trades program, she kept thinking about getting older and wondering: is it going to be like this? I just get to struggle and be dependent and have a mediocre time for the rest of my life?
“I started this on October 20th and now it’s December 10th and I feel like a completely different person. I found my confidence, and some self-worth that was missing. I have so much hope. I have a desire to live in a really big way in whatever time is left.”
Melodie felt most proud of herself for completing the program through one of the biggest heartbreaks of her life. Drowning in grief, she had two choices: recluse and feel horrible or get up and do something that would make them all proud.
“I told my son I didn’t want him to get a motorcycle. I told him if something were to happen to him, I wouldn’t live through it. But look at me go. I’m not only living, I’m making things happen. I’m so proud of myself and I was starting to wonder if I would ever feel proud of myself again.”
Today, Melodie carries herself with pride and confidence and is well on her way to self-sufficiency. After completing the Clean Energy & Trades program, she was hired as a Wire Master Apprentice at IBEW 640. When she arrived at Fresh Start, she had no savings or retirement and didn’t own a home. Now she’s in a financial position to travel, go on the cruise she’s dreamed about, and visit her children.
“I’m so grateful that I found [Fresh Start] because I don’t think I would’ve been able to move forward in the ways that I am without it. I can’t say thank you enough for that.”