Are You Like Us Now? Jocelyn Rebuilds Hope
When the Los Angeles wildfires destroyed her home, longtime Bread & Roses Café volunteer Jocelyn found herself facing the same uncertainty experienced by many of the people she has spent years serving. Her story is a testament to resilience, community, and the power of hope.
When the devastating Los Angeles wildfires swept through the Palisades, Jocelyn Cortese lost the home where she had raised her family. For nearly two decades, she had served meals at St. Joseph Center’s Bread & Roses Café, helping others through hardship. Suddenly, she found herself navigating loss of her own.
“I love being at the Café, but suddenly, I wasn’t going back to a beautiful home at the end of my shift,” Jocelyn recalls. “I was standing in the same space of loss as the people I served.”
As St. Joseph Center celebrates 50 years of service, Jocelyn’s journey reflects the meaning of Beloved Community. Her story is not only about loss, but about the relationships that sustain us when everything familiar is gone.
More Than a Meal: The Gateway to Hope
For 19 years, Jocelyn has witnessed how Bread & Roses Café serves as a gateway to hope. A restaurant-style meal creates trust, and that trust often becomes the first step toward housing, healthcare, mental health support, and long-term stability.
“The fires were awful,” Jocelyn recalls. “We raised our kids there.”
A Partnership of Purpose
Jocelyn’s commitment to service grew alongside her longtime friend and priest, David Miller. Together they built a decades-long tradition of volunteering at the Café, helping strengthen programs and improve services for guests through both hands-on service and philanthropy.
Over the years, David helped fund improvements including a coffee machine, cold storage, bathroom repairs, and other resources that continue to benefit guests today.
“You Are My Community”
When the fire took everything, the same community Jocelyn had spent years supporting stepped forward for her. Friends provided clothing, essentials, and comfort. One friend even sent an entire collection of Anne Lamott books to help replace the library she had lost.
“You are my community. That’s what St. Joseph Center is. We lift each other up.”
The Hope in Rebuilding
Walking through the aftermath of the fire deepened Jocelyn’s understanding of the people she serves every day.
“I’ve learned how to be truly present with someone who is grieving and has lost everything,” she says.
Among the few items recovered from the ashes were three small clay ladybug pencil holders her children had made in kindergarten. To most people they would have looked insignificant. To Jocelyn, they became a symbol of resilience and hope.
That Thanksgiving, her now-grown children repainted the ladybugs together, a small but meaningful act of rebuilding what had been lost.
Today, Jocelyn continues moving forward with gratitude, faith, and the support of a community that refuses to let her walk through grief alone.
Note: This post has been edited for length, clarity, and narrative flow.
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