Interview by Abernathy Cochran intern and Gainesville High School senior John Jessup
Meet Griselda Saucedo! Griselda is a resident services coordinator for the Gainesville Housing Authority and has grown up in Gainesville her whole life. She is the wife to Elias and the mother to Janelle (15) and Davian (11).
We want to thank Griselda for spending time with us recently and telling us more about her life and love of Hall County.
Please tell us a little bit about your family.
A: “I’ve been married to my husband, Elias, for 12 years now. I have a boy and a girl. Janelle, she is 15 and my boy, Davian, he is 11. They typically just keep me busy, left and right, as you know, you’re busy after school and right now in the season of softball and Davian’s doing baseball, so that’s what we’re up to.”
Q: Please tell us about your current career.
A: “I work at Gainesville Housing as a Resident Services Coordinator. What I love doing here basically is just helping people. So, right now this is my fourth week working with them. I have a passion to help people and I think I found my passion here. I help not only our residents, but the community. We’re just trying to help them in a way that if they feel like they’re stuck in a pickle, it can be financial, it could be where they need a job, it could be where they need to go back to school or anything that you can think of, we will have some sort of resource for them.”
Q: What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in our community?
A: “It’s gonna sound kind of weird, but I like pizza and our favorite place to go eat pizza is Mellow Mushroom.”
Q: How long have you lived or worked in our community?
A: “I was born and raised here.”
Q: Who’s the most interesting person you’ve met here in our community?
A: “Dr. Jamie Hitzges. He is a principal at East Hall Middle School. Hearing his story and background how he overcame poverty and he’s just such an inspiration and always someone that I can look up to.”
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?
A: “I really wanna go to Guatemala.”
Q: What’s one of your favorite movies or TV shows?
A: “My favorite show to watch is, ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians.’”
Q: What advice would you give to people?
A: “The advice that I would give to people basically would be that you’re never alone, there’s always a way out to everything and basically just be patient.”
Q: What current or former local business makes you the most nostalgic about our community?
A: “My dad liked going to have his drink at Applebee’s when I was a kid and it’s not there any more so that’s the restaurant that I’m kind of nostalgic about. ”
Q: If you could choose anyone that is alive today and not a relative with whom would you love to have lunch with and why? Where locally would y’all meet for this lunch?
A: “My aunt, she had a lot of wisdom in her. We would meet somewhere in Downtown Square… Sweet Magnolias, for sure.”
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about our community and secondly, what is something you hope our community has or does in the future?
A: “My favorite thing about the community, I think, is just learning about United Way and how they’re coming upon this whole game plan that they’re doing and just bringing everyone together trying to break poverty.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in five to 10 years?
A: “I’m here, I’m new, and it’s like, will I grow in this organization where I’m working now? Who knows? I could possibly see myself here.”
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: “I feel like I do what I like already but on my bucket list, maybe just being able to go around each state like a road trip. That might be at the end of the bucket list because you need a lot of PTO away from your job.”
Q: What is something you’ve been proud to check off your bucket list?
A: “Something that I’ve been proud to check off my bucket list is honestly being able to meet each family member due to the fact that my mom’s the 12th child in the family. They’re all scattered.”
Q: What is your go-to song or musical artist or band when you can’t decide what to listen to?
A: “This is a Hispanic one, Bad Bunny.”
Q: In hard times we can sometimes see and recognize greatness in those around us, hardworking, positive attitudes, helping on the front lines, who is one of our local shining lights today?
A: “United Way.”
Q: What is the most beautiful place you’ve ever been?
A: “I want to go back to Guatemala or I want to go to Guatemala. I was there when I was 10, I heard it’s beautiful so I wanna go there again.”
Q: What’s your favorite month or holiday?
A: “ Fall for sure. Thanksgiving.”
Q: What would you rate 10 out of 10?
A: “The Cloud 9 Wings at Mellow Mushroom.”
Q: Who would you want to play you in a movie about your life?
A: “Salma Hayek.”
Q: What are one or two of your favorite smells?
A: “The one that I like a lot is cotton linen and another one is floral.”
Q: Who inspires you to be better?
A: “I would go to Dr. Hitzges, for sure.”
