Former homeless mom, featured in 2000 article: 'My life is wonderful now'

The old Beacon-News story, tucked away in a shoebox, recalls a time in Estrellita Velazquez's life most people would want to keep stored far away.

But the 59-year-old former Aurora, Ill., woman does not want that memory to fade like the newspaper print itself.

Now living in Athens, Ga., she gets the crinkled, yellowed page out every now and then, despite the tears it brings to her and husband Raul's eyes, as a reminder of how far she and her family have come since Dec. 12, 2000, when the story was published.

Velazquez isn't sure why this last time