Life interrupted

Standing in front of his apartment door, he stopped before turing the doorknob. Despite the eviction notice posted on the door, he couldn’t bring himself to believe that his mom hadn’t paid the rent for the past three months.

Inside of the apartment, he found his mom sitting on the couch, unaware of the letter’s existence. Through her sobs, he said she admitted to him that she had stopped paying the $1,200 rent. He stood consumed by his mom’s confession not knowing whether to comfort her or get mad. She apologized, told him she loved him, and handed him $50.

Three days later, the 19-year-old was homeless.

Seven years later, Adrion Franklin, 26, business major, has since turned his life around by pursuing a degree in business administration at El Camino, becoming part of a growing clothing line called Dime A Dozen and working hard to be a good example for his 7 year old son.

“I felt like at the time I was living the good life,” Franklin said of those days years ago. “I had a girlfriend, a car, my son was just born, I had somewhere to live while going to college and then suddenly it all just vanished.”

As a child, Franklin lived in various apartments with picture-less frames, sofa beds and a mom who was in and out of his life, he said.

With a Snickers bar to lure him in, Franklin remembers being in elementary school and getting regular visits from social workers asking him questions about his mom.

“At eight years old, I didn’t know what my mom was doing. I was unaware,” he said. “She used to be on drugs when I was little, so I used to go back and forth from her house to my aunt’s house.”

While living with his mom, Franklin understood that also meant moving in with whomever her boyfriend was at the time. He can still recall the days when he and his younger brother Adam would have to stay behind with his mom’s boyfriend as she went to work. One day in particular, when he was eight and Adam was two, has always haunted Franklin. While Adrion would quietly stay in his room fixated on his toys, Adam would cry for the comfort of his mom.

“Adam was only two, so he would cry all the time, and my mom’s boyfriend couldn’t handle it so he would hit on him to try and get him to stop crying and that night he just hit on him one too many times,” Franklin said. “Adam didn’t wake up the next day.”

Franklin remembers the morning when his little brother died from blunt force trauma. A morning filled with police officers and firefighters and a mother in shock, Frankin at eight, didn’t know what death meant. Franklin said he doesn’t remember much of what happened to his mom’s ex-boyfriend, but he does remember tesitfying in court with his mom which, he said, resulted in her boyfriend being sentenced to prison.

Attempts to reach Franklin’s mother were made by “Warrior Life” but were declined.

At a young age, Franklin learned what a huge imprint losing a family member would leave on his life. He didn’t realize, as he sat in a church pew with his family members for Adam’s funeral, that would be the last time he would see him. The death of his little brother came full circle for Franklin when he was 19 and found out his girlfriend at the time was pregnant.

He remembered Adam’s name echoing in his mind as he waited on the couch for his girlfriend to come out of the bathroom with the pregnancy test. Though he didn’t know anything about being a father, one thing was for certain. He would name his son Adam to bring smiles back onto his family members’ faces. Becoming a parent at 19 didn’t scare him. He had everything he needed: a girlfriend who he loved, his mom who was clean from drugs for a while, and a safe place to live. That little pink plus sign on the white stick brought his family together.

Soon, Franklin’s fantasy life came to a crashing halt when his mom fell back into her drug habit and lost their apartment.

He went from sleeping in his bed to living out of his car, his trunk becoming his closet. He went from being able to see his son Adam on a daily basis to only seeing him when his ex-girlfriend would let him. Two months in, Franklin soon got tired of living a life that seemed unproductive and leaned toward help from family members. After getting himself back up on his two feet, Franklin found himself outside of a recruitment office enlisting in the Navy.

“(The Navy) wasn’t my last resort when I joined but like an escape to see what else was out there,” Franklin said. “(Joining) was the first step I needed to take in order to change my life.”

When he first joined the Navy, Franklin wanted to find the easiest exit route because he was scared of what was going to come next. Knowing nothing about the military, he contemplated if it was the right choice to “risk my life to change it.”

After a few spontaneous forearm tattoos hoping they would be a ticket out of his commitment, he still had to go out on deployment. Franklin realized, though, as he was still trying to figure out his life, he had a son to set an example for. The Air Force turned Franklin down for having a child born out of wedlock, but his experiences in the Navy pushed him to become the father he’d never had.

While out on deployment, he kept friends and family posted on where the ship was headed next. Childhood friend Jonathan Goosby found it hard to believe the once shy boy he had played basketball with on the courts was now out exploring the world.

“At first I didn’t agree with Adrion choosing to enlist, but now I see what a great man he has become not just for himself but for his son as well,” Goosby said.

Being in the military allowed Franklin to once again see the goal he had as a teen, which was to get a college degree. After four years in the Navy, an environment where having a degree dictated the amount of respect received, Franklin’s next stop was El Camino.

Getting back into the hang of school wasn’t an easy transition for Franklin at age 26. After taking a few general education courses on the ship, as well as the help of the Veterans Resource Center, he was prepared to return.

The Veterans Resource Center isn’t just a place where veterans can hang out in their free time or print out their homework. The center is here to help student veterans meet their educational goals, Martha Angel, student services specialist at EC, said.

Before he knew it, Franklin became part of a growing clothing line called Dime A Dozen. Trying to enlarge the brand, Franklin and his friends are meeting with stores like Shiek and Millennium hoping they will consider adding Dime A Dozen to their stores.

Currently, the group sells their clothing on their website and as well as at a store in Old Torrance. Though Franklin knows being part of the clothing line won’t bring him instant success, being surrounded by friends and family he feels like now he’s at the right place at the right time.

“As I grew up, I realized that’s just life and I grew up in the church so I believe in God and I just felt like everything happened for a reason,” Franklin said. “Of course I was scared at the moment and I cried but I just had to get over it.”