Story

I would like to personally follow in my grandmother’s footsteps & start a local tourism group responsible for booking and hosting fun, factual tours for tourists and interested people just “passing through” my historic and rural town California town in which I have lived my whole life. It is located near Yosemite National Park and features a rustic church and many old buildings that echo hauntings from the epic gold rush of the 1800’s.  Several television series’ along with numerous websites have also described this particular rural townsite as one of America’s most haunted ghost towns. Customers can schedule tours on their way to visit the more well-known attraction that is Yosemite National Park. Lasting about 45 minutes, a tour guide (most likely yours truly!) will meet the customers and take a leisurely walk up and down these so-called “haunted” streets while discussing the local history and offering customers an informational brochure and sticker, or some other form of souvenir they may take home for remembrance. My hometown is of special importance to me personally because it is where I was raised from birth…and I happen to be the 7th generation carrying on my family’s footprints in California, & 5th generation in my county. My grandfather served as County Tax Collector for 13 years, as well as a local bank manager and farmed & ran cattle on the hundreds of acres he owned in my sleepy little “suburbian” town (we used to own about half of this teeny tiny townsite & surrounding lands). My grandmother performed in the Stockton Symphony of Ballet, met my grandfather while working for the same bank, instructed a senior citizens’ exercise program (when I was very young) and also voluntarily served as the caretaker for the abandoned church where generations of my family are buried, including, unfortunately, my only child and stillborn angel baby, Beau Maverick Martinez. I would love to carry on in honor of all of my grandparents’ hard work as caretaker of said church, & of my baby. He would be five years old today if he was here with me.  My list of tragedies and huge potholes/pitfalls in the road of life are far too numerous the last few years to carry on this narrative, just please believe that I have absolutely no money to my name, barely have a way to get to the nearby larger town (where grocery stores are, etc) that is 11+ miles from home, & cannot even begin to afford these dream goals of mine. If anyone had the money to help me out in any way, it would be so greatly appreciated and I would forever be grateful for the grace of God somehow putting you in my life in this way. I feel like I need some big sign like this to “save” my “beautiful disaster?” of a life story at this point.  And I am at my whit’s end. Please and thank you.