Help Lisa Sanchez Rebuild Her Life

Hello, my name is Joseph Cantu, and this is my brother, Victor Cantu. We are the sons of Lisa Sanchez. Today, we come to you with a deeply personal story and a heartfelt plea for financial support.

Our mother was missing for nearly 11 years, after mental illness hit hard and she struggled without proper medication. Our family endured tremendous pain searching for her for over 10 years while she went missing. Without her meds and proper care, she succumbed to memory loss causing her to go homeless, destabilizing her life completely. We searched desperately with no trace or records of her anywhere! Until now... (She's been found!)

We are reaching out to raise funds to help our mother on her recovery journey to restart life. Your contributions will provide her with essential resources, including clothing, personal care items, simple furniture (bed, dresser), housing, proper medical care, and the support she needs to completely start over.

The short story...

On February 25th, 2025, my brother received a call from a state hospital in Terrell, Texas, a small town near Dallas. The caseworker was urgently attempting to locate Victor and Joseph Cantu regarding a "Jane Doe" in their care since November 2024. This woman had been found in dire conditions, sleeping on the side of a dangerous highway in Dallas, and had lost most of her memory. The hospital took her in and worked diligently to help her regain her identity. After several months and the right medication to stabilize her, she began to remember her name. However, her recollection of family members remained elusive.

As Lisa slowly recovered, she recalled having a best friend named Joseph. Eventually, she remembered a son named Victor Cantu, realizing that Joseph was, in fact, her youngest son. The caseworker then utilized social media to search for Victor, ultimately locating a phone number for him in Houston, Texas, and made the miraculous call.

Initially, Victor missed the call, mistakenly believing it was a spam number. However, he received a voicemail requesting him to return the call at his earliest convenience. When he did, he received the news he and Joseph had long awaited: "Victor Cantu, do you have a mother named Lisa Sanchez?" Victor, holding his breath, replied, "YES!" The caseworker then revealed, "We have your mom in our care, and she is beginning to remember her family!" Victor immediately texted Joseph in Colorado, exclaiming, "They found our mom!"

This prompted an immediate plane trip for Joseph from Colorado to Houston, followed by a four-and-a-half-hour drive to Dallas. We reunited with our mother and spent a week together in Texas catching up.

Lisa is now home in Colorado with me, Joseph in Colorado Springs, where she is under my close care. She is recovering rapidly, often expressing her gratitude by saying, "I never want to get lost again. I am home with my sons!"

A once upon a time actress and model...

Lisa also has a background as a model and actress, appearing in the 1989 film "Dream Date" alongside Pauly Shore. She shares amusing anecdotes about being pursued by David Schwimmer from the show "Friends," whom she claims she turned down several times during her acting career.

In closing, Lisa lost ten years of her life, believing she had been missing for only one to two years. She is now learning to use a smartphone for the first time, often humorously sliding her entire palm across the touch screen and exclaiming, "This thing doesn't want to listen to me!" I reassure her that we will help her catch up, one day at a time.

This experience has been a miracle for our family. Lisa now has six grandchildren, including four World of Dance Champion dancers and two Jiu-Jitsu USA and World Champion fighters, as well as a new granddaughter-in-law who is also a dancer. She is adjusting to life after being homeless and lost for over a decade, embracing each day as she says, "Waking Up."

We hope this story inspires those still believing in miracles for missing persons. Through faith, prayer, and perseverance, we truly believe this is a miracle from God, and we feel humbled to be among the few families reunited with a loved one.

We are incredibly grateful for any assistance you can provide, and we thank you for being part of our mother’s journey toward healing and a fresh start to life again. Lisa is also now on a monthly injection that will prevent her from missing meds, and has restablized her mentally. She is devastated at the time she has lost, but is diligent to start anew.