Neighbors 4 Neighbors

Miami Costume Maker Loses It All After 3 Decades

If you can help Moreno find a job, call Neighbors4Neighbors at: 305-597-4404

MIAMI (CBS4) ― The economy is impacting all of us; it's causing most of us to change how we're doing things at home. This next story is about a woman who's really being hit. Elsa Moreno is 80 years-old and for three decades she ran a successful business in Miami. But she's gone from the height of success to the lowest point of her life.

She's in a place no one imagines they'd ever end up in, especially Moreno. Her face is worn with age and wisdom like the pages of the Bible she reads from. She's a woman who lived success and lost it many times—running a theatrical costume store for 30 years.

Her business first destroyed by Hurricane Andrew.

"I am alive by the grace of God, because I was in the store when the hurricane comes in," said Moreno before she started sobbing.

She rebuilt her costume empire, and for awhile she was doing very well.

"You know I make the costume for Norwegian Cruise Line, for the Riviera Country Club, for the Ritz Carlton," she said.

They were part of a long list of clientele that slowly shortened on her as the economy tightened its belt, but Moreno kept sewing.

"That's my life my work. I like to create costumes."

In May she lost everything. She was evicted from her store in Little Havana's Southwest 8th street, and could no longer afford to pay rent on her home.

"And that's why I'm in this shelter, I have no place to go," she said. "Thank God for this shelter because I got breakfast lunch and dinner, and a clean place to go to bed to."

Now she shares a room with dozens of others, and keeps her belongings in a tiny locker at the Community Partnership for the Homeless. Meanwhile, her lavish costumes are packed away in a nearby storage center—like her dreams waiting to be brought back to life.

"I have to do something because if I don't do it, my life will be, will end."

She's 80, and retirement is not an option. Her family is unable to help her at this trying time.

"You know I can't see myself sitting in a chair watching novellas."

Her independence and need to create are both too strong to lay dormant in this temporary shelter.

If you can help Moreno find a job, please call Neighbors4Neighbors at: 305-597-4404

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

---