Harmony Anderson rummaged around in her bag, pulling out a spray bottle, some powder and a towel.
“My life has been very, very hectic,” the single mother of one explained. “From when I was a little girl, all the way up until current.”
As Anderson sprinkled the powder around a bathtub and turned on the faucet, she recalled her life just five years ago.
“I felt like a bad parent,” Anderson remembered. “Because we were sleeping inside of a car and everything.”
After life didn’t work out the way Anderson thought it would, she and her daughter Avaya ended up homeless.
But Harmony wanted her daughter to have a better life — which started with Harmony improving her own. She felt the stigma from others living on the streets against asking for help, but pushed back and found a shelter. It was there she connected with the Fort Worth-based Center for Transforming Lives.
“They weren’t judgmental at all,” Anderson said. “And my child, she loved all the staff and the playroom.”
The Tarrant County nonprofit provides housing support, counseling, financial services and more to single moms and their children. While there, Anderson started Diamond Renee’s Spotless Cleaning Services — her own business.
“All of us, at some point in our lives, need help,” said Trish Rodriguez, the center’s director of communications.
At the center, Anderson said she took advantage of every program she could.
“It is so wonderful to see Harmony’s success,” Rodriguez said. “It’s the best.”
The center even helped Anderson get an apartment for herself and her daughter.
“The first time I stepped foot in here,” Anderson said. “I didn’t want to leave. I was so excited.”
Anderson is now thriving — her business has a dozen regular clients and four employees, with plans to grow. She also said she wants to get her daughter into the family business.
“She loves cleaning too,” Anderson said of Avaya. “I’ve been teaching her how to sweep, mop, wipe down cabinets and everything.”
Even though some might consider it a chore, when Anderson is elbow deep in a tub, scrubbing off grime, she’s in her happy place.