HEALTH RESOURCE R

PULMONARY & CRITICAL CARE

Our clinic focuses on helping patients breathe better. Whether one has asthma, allergies, COPD, or chronic cough, we can investigate the cause and treat as indicated. We attempt to address the whole person, not just symptoms. Therefore we also can help with weight loss and sleep issues.

Ophthalmologist

Dr. Strong is committed to compassionate, quality eye care. He offers medical and surgical care, including cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, macular degeneration, and dry eye syndrome. He also offers routine eye exams and contact lenses. All ages are welcome, from children to seniors. Our office is conveniently located at Central Expressway and Fitzhugh, just one exit south of Knox/Henderson.

come. With wholesale pricing to the public and contractor discounts, we are also your affordable solution. Just ask some of your neighbors – references are available upon request.

years

“If I didn’t see half the things my mom did to me, then maybe I’d be a little bit different than I am,” she says. “Maybe I would be a happier person and maybe not as insecure.”

Tovar, an 18-year-old senior at Adamson High School, was born to a teenage mom. From the time she was a baby, she bounced from one caregiver to another. She stayed with her grandma for about two years. Once, her mom asked an aunt to watch little Ariel while she went to the store; mom didn’t return for two months.

Later, when her mom was fighting with a live-in boyfriend, the boyfriend gave her mother an ultimatum: the kid or me.

“She didn’t say anything,” Tovar says. “She just let me go that easily over some guy.”

The next day, her mom drove her to San Antonio to live with her grandma.

While she was there, from the ages of 8 to 12, she says a male relative regularly molested her.

She received what she describes as a strict Christian upbringing from her grandma. And she has two aunts who she says love her and often help her out in life. One is her mom’s sister, who lives in the Dallas area, and the other is her uncle’s ex-wife, who lives in San Antonio.

Tovar returned to live with her mother eventually, but after a fight last year, she

ARIEL TOVAR has a tattoo on her chest that reads,

was kicked out of the house.

“I had no car, no money, no job, nothing,” she says.

So she couch surfed, spending the night with friends, with her aunt, living in a different place every night or two. That went on for three months, but Tovar made sure she never missed a day of school.

She always told herself she didn’t want to be like her mom.

“She dropped out of high school, and she had a difficult childhood, too,” she says. “If I’m like her, then I’m going to be dependent on other people for everything, for comfort, for happiness, for money, everything.”

Kimberly D’Mello of Education is Freedom says Tovar is naturally ambitious.

“She doesn’t want to work for minimum wage all her life,” she says. “College has always been a goal. She knows that’s her ticket to the life she wants to live.”

Tovar’s mom recently let her move back in with her. But she doesn’t spend much time there. She leaves school at 12:30 p.m. every day and goes to work at a barbecue restaurant, where she works 30-40 hours a week.

She is protective of her 15-year-old brother, and she sometimes gives him money or buys him video games. She drives him to school every day in the ’99

Chevy Cavalier a friend’s dad is letting her buy in payments of $300 a month. She pays for her car insurance, buys her own clothes and generally takes care of herself.

Tovar’s favorite class is Advanced Placement biology, and she wants to study biochemistry at Texas Woman’s University and then go to medical school to become an obstetrician.

“I’ve pushed myself this far, so I’m pretty sure I can do it,” she says.

She says she forgives her mom, who lost her oldest child (Tovar’s older brother) to Child Protective Services, and her youngest, a 7-year-old daughter, to a custody battle.

“My little brother and me are the only ones who she’s always going to have,” Tovar says. “She’s had so many boyfriends come and go, and we’ve always been by her side.”

Even though her childhood was difficult, Tovar has no regrets. If things had been different, she could be “like other girls, partying every weekend and getting drunk and sneaking out of their moms’ houses.”

She might not have pushed herself so hard. She might not have that confidence, knowing she’s smart and that no one can take it away from her.

That’s why she wants another tattoo, this one on her back: “Knowledge is Key”.