In the 1990s, Sharon “Sherry” Slater didn’t feel comfortable with people, she talked mainly to her cat.

If you meet her now, that’s hard to imagine.

Slater, who has mosaic Down syndrome and schizophrenia, works at Nature’s Oasis, she’s made friends with bus drivers on her routes, and she is planning a trip to Rhode Island and Massachusetts as part of her genealogy research.

Slater’s host home provider, Laura Alsum, 37, has watched her independence increase since they first met in the mid-1990s.

“She didn’t do a lot for herself,” Alsum recalled.

The two first met through Community Connections, when Alsum’s mom was Slater’s host home provider. The nonprofit serves those with development and intellectual disabilities and connects clients with host home providers like Alsum, who are independent contractors.

Slater, 56, has been a Community Connections client for 32 years, and she prefers the one-on-one nature of a host home to having staff members care for her in shifts.

Alsum cared for Slater in the mid-2000s as a staff member and 2½ years ago she became a host home provider so Alsum could move in.

“She’s part of our family,” Alsum said.

Alsum has been around Community Connections since she was 12 and her mom started as the assistant to the finance director.

In addition to being a host home provider, she is also the executive assistant to the CEO and president and the office manager at Community Connections.

“It’s something that always touched my heart,” Alsum said, of her work with Community Connections clients.

But Alsum doesn’t consider living with Slater work. Alsum always introduces Slater as her roommate, and they enjoy watching their favorite TV shows together, such as “NCIS.”

“Most of the time we get along good,” Slater said.

Slater tends to stick to a strict routine, going to Durango Joe’s in the morning, working three days a week at Nature’s Oasis and grocery shopping every Thursday.

She has also dug into her genealogy. After her mom told her she was a descendant of Samuel Slater, who built America’s first water-powered cotton spinning mill, she started researching her family tree, and she has traced it back to the 1500s.

But there was a time when she needed help with cooking, cleaning and personal hygiene.

“She has just really grown,” Alsum said.

Slater gives Alsum credit for a lot of her progress. Alsum sees it as Slater not giving into the disability.

Alsum still helps Slater with her medication, her finances and encourages Slater to break with some of her strict routines to take special trips. They have been to the rodeo, the pumpkin patch, and they are planning a trip on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad to celebrate their birthdays.

As Slater changed, society has also become more accepting and that’s part of the reason why Alsum doesn’t worry about Slater while she is at work.

Durango’s welcoming atmosphere is part of why Slater loves it here and has no plans to leave.

“People are good to me here,” she said.

mshinn@durangoherald.com