We Thought We Lost Her: A Family’s Story of Redemption and Hope

“We thought we lost her,” Rudy Hernandez said, his hands clasped tightly in front of him. “I really had no hope. I thought I had lost my daughter.”

As a father, Rudy struggled with feelings of helplessness. “The hardest part for me was, as the leader of my family and the provider, I kept thinking, ‘How can I help my daughter while still supporting my family?”

Rudy’s daughter, Emory Hernandez, was serving time at the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville – her third incarceration at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). This time, she was facing a 13-year sentence.

Sitting between her parents, Emory opened up, her voice filled with the weight of her past.

“I felt like it was over. I disconnected from my family. I wasn’t parenting, wasn’t taking responsibility. I made poor choices that led me to TDCJ, and I felt lost. I thought, ‘Man, I’m going to drown in here.’”

But something changed for Emory, a shift she can still clearly recall. “I remember realizing that it was bigger than me. It wasn’t just my victim who suffered. There were so many others – my family, my children, the community.”

Emory reflected on the pivotal moment that changed everything. “One day, they called me to the warden’s office. I’ll never forget it. They just looked at me and asked, ‘Are you tired of coming to prison?’”

She responded without hesitation, “Yes. I am.”

The next words she heard would alter her path forever: “Let us help you.”

Emory was invited to join the STRIVE program at the O’Daniel Unit. STRIVE stands for Strength Through Restoration, Independence, Vision and Empowerment, and focuses on providing reentry support services to incarcerated women, which includes career skills development, employment and community support referrals.

The program also emphasizes soft skills that help women navigate interpersonal relationships and emotional well-being.

“We had classes on parenting, anger management, job interviews, resume writing,” Emory said. “They were teaching us skills we needed to get ahead – skills that would help us change.”

Emory decided to dig in and learn everything she could from the opportunity she was given. “I made the decision to take whatever they gave me and learn from it – not for my parents, not for my children, not for a spouse – but for myself. I just started absorbing everything they gave me.”

Through her classes she started seeing a change in herself. “My needs and my wants started changing. I didn’t want anything from anybody. Inside something took place. That selfishness, fear and anger. That lack of consideration that I had for others now was gone.”

That moment marked a shift that Emory hadn’t felt before. “I was given an opportunity I’d never had before, like an anchor that just secured me. It helped me find stability.”

The change was soon noticeable to her family, too. “We started seeing a transformation in her this time,” Rudy recalled. “Through phone calls and visits, her attitude was changing. Instead of focusing on what she needed, she was excited to share what she had accomplished, what she was working toward.”

Rudy continued, “She would tell us about her goals, the things she was learning and how she was applying them.”

Emory’s transformation didn’t stay isolated to prison walls – it began to ripple through her family.

“The STRIVE program didn’t just change Emory, it affected us all. She would share what she was learning, and we started thinking, ‘Well, maybe we can apply some of these things at home too.’ It sparked a change in all of us.”

Rudy explained, “It felt like we were getting our daughter back. It wasn’t the same as before. She wasn’t asking for money for commissary; she was talking about turning a new leaf. She had hope, and that gave us hope, too.”

Looking back, Emory’s family acknowledged the deep impact STRIVE had on their lives. “It saved our family,” Rudy said. “It kept us together. We saw a future for her again. We saw her strength, and we found ours.”

Now, Emory gets to share her knowledge and story with others similar to her as the Reentry Supervisor at TDCJ’s Bartlett Innovation Unit.

Rudy explained, “Emory’s employed today, she’s self-supporting today. Emory takes care of her children. And if you look at where it all started, it was when the STRIVE program was offered to her. That was the beginning of it all.”

Emory found redemption and gave her family the chance to heal, all while showing that even in the darkest moments, transformation and hope are possible.