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Martha Melendez wrote a letter in January, identical to her mom knew she would.
Marta Melendez
Get to know Melendez in his e book 2024, The Aspiring Agent: From Overworked Rookie to Actual Property Rockstar. Or you may see her in her appearances on HGTV My Lottery Dream Dwelling, or from the stage at WomanUP! or Engel & Völkers’ EVX convention – has been an agent at Engel & Völkers Melbourne for nearly six years.
After assembly Melendez for the primary time in WomanUP! in 2022when she advised her story of being a sufferer of home abuse, two issues grew to become clear: She is a fierce, true, profitable lady, and she or he thanks her mom for all the pieces.
A mom’s love
“My mom has all the time been my basis, my rock, my all the pieces,” Melendez advised Inman.
Martha Melendez and her mom, Maria Clementina Perdomo
“He was forward of his time. He wore denims earlier than anybody else. She lower her hair as a result of at the moment, all the women had it [long hair] … He was impartial, to a fault. She all the time realized that she will do issues, she would not want a person to inform her what to do, she would not need to get married in any respect,” she stated. And he did not.
When Melendez was a toddler rising up in Columbia, lecturers known as all their classes, so college students took extra factors. Melendez’s mom, Maria Clementina Perdomo, took Melendez’s notebooks from college and sure them into hardback, leather-bound books yearly in school, which she nonetheless has to at the present time.
“As a result of he had an thought: He wished me to be a author. However he by no means advised me that,” stated Melendez.
Dwelling in Columbia within the ’80s, Perdomo noticed drug cartels taking on, Melendez stated, so Perdomo offered all the pieces and moved to the US with Melendez, regardless of neither of them talking English.
Perdomo had already retired from Columbia, however within the States, he took a manufacturing facility job that paid three {dollars} an hour. Melendez would work with him the summer season after he turned 14.
Realizing the necessity to modify to their new house, Melendez stated she signed her mom up for English lessons on the Hispanic Middle in downtown Mount Holly, New Jersey, on Mondays and Wednesdays.
They’d stroll two kilometers after work and go to highschool to check, and Melendez would keep within the lecture rooms, telling the lecturers that he was unsure if his mom would have the ability to discover him a means again. He discovered all the pieces as a result of he realized that his mom would want him to be taught English on this new life.
Then Melendez discovered that they taught English to highschool seniors on Tuesdays and Thursdays and signed up for that, too. His mom by no means discovered English, however Melendez did; he discovered learn how to write checks, handle physician’s appointments and lease an condominium.
“It was such a visit for me and my mom, and I believe that is why I all the time speak about him as a result of it was all the time me and my mom,” stated Melendez.
Arduous instances
Martha Melendez and mom, Maria Clementina Perdomo
Melendez bought married on the age of 18. The wedding was abusive, and the younger couple struggled to outlive, renting a room with no rest room whereas Melendez was six months pregnant and dealing two jobs to make ends meet. He used to depend on a espresso can.
“Thank God, I used to be in a position to get out alive. Lots of people do not do this,” Melendez advised Inman. “It needed to go a protracted strategy to open my eyes. I believe I am going to nonetheless be there with my can of Folgers.”
A therapist as soon as advised her that in the event you inform a narrative with out crying, you’re cured. She first advised the story on WomanUP! on stage, Folger can in hand.
“It took me a few years to get better from that. I did not need to be a sufferer. And I did not need to be a survivor as a result of it meant you had trauma that you just survived, and I wished to thrive. I did not need to be the lady who was crushed. And I stated, How do I alter that story?” Melendez advised Inman.
“I am glad I went by that as a result of it made me a stronger particular person. And I see it, and I can assist others,” he stated.
To make my mom’s goals come true
In 1998, Melendez reconnected together with his 1992 promenade date, Lucian Melendez. He begged her exhausting, purchased her a automotive and a home and moved to Florida earlier than they married in 2000 and had two youngsters.
Melendez earned her actual property license in 2005 whereas educating English as a second language. Lucian Melendez is now an assistant principal at a highschool in Viera, Florida.
Perdomo was by his daughter’s facet on this pleased chapter of latest beginnings. However sadly, he handed away on October 28, 2020. Melendez says that it was solely after the demise of his mom that he realized all of the sacrifices he had made.
Martha Melendez and daughter, Alexandra Villa
In January of 2024, Melendez made his mom’s dream come true when he printed his first e book, The Aspiring Agent: From Overworked Rookie to Actual Property Rockstar. It is a e book he needs he had when he began promoting actual property.
It is an ideal match for Melendez’s 29-year-old daughter, Alexandra Villa, who began her actual property profession in November 2023.
After they took a protracted journey, Melendez would learn his e book to Villa, and they might speak about it collectively, Villa even quoting recommendation from the e book again to his mom. Now, Villa works in his mom’s workplace, a part of the Engel & Völkers household.
Melendez stated it feels just like the cycle is repeating itself. “I labored with my mom, and now [Alexandra] you’ll work with me. I hope that as he grows up, we are able to strengthen our relationship. I’m pleased with the mom she is, and I hope that someday, she will do the identical for her daughter, and we are able to have a 3rd technology of actual property brokers.”
Electronic mail Dani Vanderboegh