There but for the grace of God, go I

[yor5150]

Unfortunately there are countless stories like the following. They are a good reminder to be grateful for what we have. I wish she would have found recovery before she ran out of time & hope she is finally at peace.

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Article from the San Jose Mercury News
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Homeless friends mourn San Jose woman killed by train

By Sharon Noguchi

Posted: 11/08/2009 0721 PM PST
Updated: 11/08/2009 08:40:03 PM PST

When her friends last saw her on Friday, Cheryl Ann Mendoza was enjoying hot dogs and chicken at a barbecue in San Jose's Columbus Park, basking in her release that day from Valley Medical Center.

She left the picnic, as friends tell it, to go hustle some money to buy the vodka she loved. She never came back. Mendoza died after being struck by an Altamont Commuter Express train near College Park Station in San Jose. She was 52.

Mendoza had been homeless for as long as her friends had known her — at least a dozen years. She usually spent her days hanging out at Columbus Park, next to the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden alongside the Guadalupe River. She slept under the Taylor Street Bridge that crosses Highway 87 and the river, friends said Sunday.

But even for a group that has lost other companions to the hardships of street living and the bottle, Mendoza's death was as unexpected as it was unexplained.

"She wasn't supposed to go like this," her friend Angela Russell said between sobs.

Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said Sunday that transit police are still investigating the death, which happened at 3:40 p.m. Friday. It was the 14th fatality on the Caltrain right of way this year, followed two hours later by another in Redwood City. The Santa Clara County coroner identified him Saturday as John Vincent King Jr. and described him as a transient.

Police say they are trying to determine whether Mendoza's death
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was an accident or a suicide.

Friends say Mendoza was born and raised in San Jose. Details of her younger life are hazy. She has one or two sons, they said.

She started drinking at age 15, and her mother gave her the alcohol, she told photographer Rafi Litmanovitz. Mendoza worked as a bartender in the Willow Glen neighborhood and then at Fontanetti's sporting goods store, Russell said. Later, she worked as a cashier at the Valero gas station on Coleman Avenue and Hedding Street.

Somehow Mendoza ended up on the streets. If alcohol didn't put her there, friends and street workers said, it was certainly her constant companion.

Most recently Mendoza was a regular among those hanging out in Columbus Park but previously had lived in Santa Cruz. She returned to San Jose and for a while moved to the Burbank neighborhood, but again came back to Columbus.

"She was a good person," said Carlos Vallejos, who runs Homeless Street Ministries.

By day, she would panhandle near the Target store on Coleman Avenue. A bookworm, she would borrow books from friends and immerse herself in them at the park. "She loved adventure stories, anything to get her out of the situation she was in," friend Doug Roach said.

"She was a great cook," Russell said. "But she liked — of all things — SpaghettiO's."

She especially liked Taaka vodka.

About 10 days ago, a friend of Mendoza known as Louisiana — friends aren't sure of his full name — died of complications of gangrene and alcohol-related diseases.

"The last time I saw her, I was buying her a beer for him,'' Mendoza's friend Johnny Flamingo said. "She was in a good mood then."

Soon afterward, Mendoza herself was hospitalized, perhaps for complications of alcoholism, friends said. She was released Friday and joined the picnic put on by a friend who had just cashed in some food stamps.

When she walked away, everyone expected her to follow her usual routine. Instead, Mendoza was struck by the Stockton-bound train.

Russell thinks her friend may have slipped through a fence at the end of Asbury Street, stumbled, hit her head and fell on the tracks.

Litmanovitz, an engineer at a Silicon Valley startup who feeds and documents the homeless, isn't so sure. When he saw her last week, "She was very down, and she was so sick," he said. He offered to buy her food, but she insisted she couldn't eat without drinking — and he refused to buy her alcohol. "I told her, 'you really need to stop drinking.'"

On hearing of her death, friend Chris Armenta said, "We were shocked."

Added Roach: "She was loved by all of us," the group that considers themselves family at Columbus Park. "We're going to miss her."

[TheSunAlsoRises]

Wow... that was the end game for me if I kept going--i'm sure of it... Even down to being a bookworm...

[CarolD]

I noticed 3 tragic deaths in that story

Cheryl Ann Mendoza-John Vincent King Jr-Louisiana
RIP May your deaths save someone else.

[yor5150]

Originally Posted by CarolD

I noticed 3 tragic deaths in that story

Cheryl Ann Mendoza-John Vincent King Jr-Louisiana
RIP May your deaths save someone else.

You're right...

Cheryl Ann Mendoza, 52: Alcoholism - "struck by a train. death was an accident or a suicide".

Louisiana: Alcoholism - "died of complications of gangrene and alcohol-related diseases".

John Vincent King Jr, 60 - struck by a train, described as a transient. Unknown whether it was an accident or suicide. No mention in the articles I could find whether he had substance abuse problems but figure the odds...

A tragic end. Like you said, may they RIP...