Rosa Castellanos knew she had to leave her toxic boyfriend in Detroit when he threatened her and their daughter, Emily, who was 11 at the time. So, when Castellanos and Emily traveled to Miami to visit her family in 2021, they decided to stay.

Castellanos had contemplated leaving him several times before. She was exhausted from constant drama — not physical abuse, but threats to leave and mental abuse.

“One time, I told him I’ll call the cops,” she recalls. “He told me if I do, then nobody will come back out alive.”

Life has been difficult for them. They have dealt with illness and poverty since arriving in Florida.

Rosa Castellanos was born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to a family of four children. She immigrated to New Jersey in 1985 and finished high school there. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in visual communications at Kean University in 2000 and started working as a graphic designer at the Detroit Free Press in 2002.

Castellanos met her now ex-partner in 2008 and moved in with him. She had problems conceiving, but in 2009, she discovered that she was pregnant. Emily was born the next year.

“It was a miracle,” Castellanos says. “But her dad hesitated on the responsibilities as he was 50 years old at the time.”

As Emily grew up, she was exposed to her dad’s threatening, abusive and controlling behavior, her mom says. After the little girl dropped a glass of water, he yelled at her, Castellanos recalls.

“She cried as I took her to the bedroom and tried to console her,” Castellanos says.

Another time, after Castellanos’ beloved brother, Omar Castellanos, 41, was shot down in a restaurant in Honduras, the man made it impossible for her or Emily to attend the funeral.

“He never said I couldn’t go, but he said he wouldn’t take care of [Emily] when I went,” explained Castellanos. “He never let me get a passport for her either.”

There was “constant” yelling and fighting, she adds.

“By the time we were done [arguing],” Castellanos says, “I ended up thinking that it was my fault, that I had done something bad.”

Castellanos was her family’s sole income earner for the next 10 or 11 years.

Martha Thierry worked with Castellanos at the Free Press. She describes her friend as an extremely talented artist as well as a generous and wonderful mother.

“She has always made Emily her priority,” Thierry said. “She’s been there for others.”

In October 2017, Castellanos was laid off when her department was shut down. Then she suffered a stroke, which left the right side of her body numb.

Soon after that, she fell and suffered a concussion. Doctors diagnosed her with cadasil, an inherited disease affecting blood flow to the brain.

After the diagnosis, in May 2021, she visited her mom at the home of her sister, Claudia Varela, in Miami Gardens. On the trip, Castellanos opened up about the relationship with her boyfriend.

“I felt ashamed to tell them about what was happening,” she said. “[They] kept telling me that I didn’t have to go back.”

Soon she and Emily were living in Miami Gardens. A cousin sent along her 2005 Toyota and important documents. She hasn’t been able to find work because of her medical condition.

The Crime Victims Advocacy Council, a nonprofit, helped her to rent her current apartment and this past August, United Way added a few months of aid. She has applied for Social Security disability benefits but so far has received no response.

Castellanos, now 55, relies on her dilapidated Toyota, which has 182,000 miles, to get around and drop her daughter off at school. Water leaks through the broken sunroof.

Through Wish Book, she hopes to get her sunroof fixed or perhaps get help obtaining a more reliable car.

The Center for Family and Child Enrichment nominated her for help from the Miami Herald/el Nuevo Herald Wish Book program. Elise Karnegis, a dietitian with the center who works with Emily, says that Castellanos has trouble driving to her appointments.

“She needs to drive to Gainesville [to see her neurologist] and to her many other doctors’ appointments,” explained Karnegis. “So she needs a reliable car.”

Castellanos would also like some help for Emily, now 12, who has been accepted to art school but hasn’t been able to attend due to her mom’s health and car issues. Emily would like an iPad, a new computer, shoes and clothes.

“It’s been difficult,” she says, “impossible for me to keep above water.”

How to help

To help this Wish Book nominee and the more than 100 other nominees who are in need this year:

▪ To donate, use the coupon found in the newspaper or pay securely online through www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook

▪ For more information, call 305-376-2906 or emailWishbook@MiamiHerald.com

▪ The most requested items are often laptops and tablets for school, furniture, and accessible vans

▪ Read all Wish Book stories on www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook

This story was written for Florida International University’s South Florida Media Network.

This story was originally published December 15, 2022 at 6:00 AM.