photos courtesy Yesterday’s Gone
When Loree Tamayo left her abusive partner in 2015, her father told her, “Honey, at least you’ve got a great job, money, and no kids to worry about. That stuck in my heart,” she says. “I thought, well this is hard. I can’t imagine it being harder. I can’t imagine not having money and having kids while doing this. It didn’t seem fair that just because I was financially sound and didn’t have children, I got to get out. What do other people do?”
From that moment on, Loree felt a divine calling to create a place for women in Williamson County and surrounding areas to heal from their trauma and begin a journey towards a successful, independent life.
JOURNEY TO HEALING
After buying property between Georgetown and Liberty Hill and adding three tiny homes, Loree visited other area non-profits that serve women who have suffered abuse to see what gaps needed to be filled. Several organizations like Safe Alliance and Hope Alliance provide emergency housing for about three months for women fleeing their abusers, but many victims end up homeless or return to their abuser because they have nowhere else to go and cannot support themselves. “I love Safe Alliance and Hope Alliance and I want to finish their work,” Loree says.
In 2023, she started Yesterday’s Gone, a program designed to support women who have been abused by offering transitional housing for one year while the women heal and prepare to live independently. Residents, known as GEMS, are asked to meet weekly with a life coach, work or attend school while saving 50 percent of their income, and join a support group or church group to get involved in a long-term community outside of Yesterday’s Gone. The non-profit’s first GEM was a woman who had suffered lifelong abuse and wasn’t able escape the cycle of abuse and poverty. At Yesterday’s Gone, she joined a support group and found a well-paying cleaning job at an assisted living facility. “She is doing so well and she’s determined to do better. It’s wonderful to watch this transformation,” her life coach told Loree.
The need for Yesterday’s Gone has been overwhelming, Loree says, pointing to the organization’s 41-person wait list. But she and her team ensure that any woman in need is able to get the help she needs, even if it means guiding them to other resources. Loree remembers one woman who called asking for help after finding out her husband’s abuse towards her had escalated to their child. By the end of the day, both victims had been removed from the situation and received help from a shelter and the Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center. One month later, the woman reached out to Yesterday’s Gone, saying her abuser was now in jail. “Thank you so much for the help you gave me that day when I was so frantic.”
PAIN WITH A PURPOSE
In August, Loree is excited to publish a workbook she calls “a road map for healing from abusive trauma” that will be available for individuals and women’s group studies. She also hopes to increase the non-profit’s homes to nine homes, although her “God-sized dream is that there’s a Yesterday’s Gone in every state throughout the United States, maybe more than one. We envision a world where no woman is trapped in an abusive situation.”
Loree is grateful for the meaningful, though painful, journey that led her to Yesterday’s Gone. “It’s sort of like my pain has a purpose. If God asked if I wanted a do-over, I wouldn’t do it differently because I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing today. God was with me the whole time and probably thinking, when she comes out on the other side, she’ll be a force to be reckoned with, my little redhead. I can’t wait to see how I’m going to use this girl. What intended to harm me is being used for good.”
LEND A HAND
Yesterday’s Gone welcomes donations as well as volunteers who would be willing to drive residents to their jobs or support groups, or even simply be a friend to them, as “it takes a village to heal people,” Loree says.
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yesterdaysgone.org