Double celebration for Nicholas Gallery and Daughter Raylea
- Ellis
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
When Nicholas Gallery’s daughter Raylea graduates from Ellis Pre-K this summer, that will be a second major milestone for father and daughter to celebrate. After 16 months in foster care, Raylea was reunited with her father when he won custody in June 2024. This family success demonstrates the determination and resilience of the father and daughter, and the wraparound support that Ellis offered them.
Nicholas is thrilled to be Raylea’s father. “It’s good watching her grow. She’s a happy, typically developing child,” he says, adding, “Raylea is a smart and very persistent kid, and she makes friends wherever she goes. I know she’ll do well in her new school.”
Life was very different in 2022 when Raylea, 20 months, and her half-sister Riley, three years old, were living with their mother in a recovery shelter. They were evicted when the mother started using drugs again. A panicked nighttime call from the mother to Ellis social worker Cherish Casey started the wheels turning in a positive direction.
“This was one of those perfect storms where multiple systems failed,” Cherish says. “The shelter didn’t have a plan, the Department of Families and Children (DCF) was involved but unaware of the developing crisis at hand, and the mother didn’t know where to turn. But I remembered the dad from his times at Ellis, so I suggested giving Nicholas a call.”
Nicholas immediately rose to the challenge. He took the girls in that night and called DCF to verify that the children were well cared for. He set off on a legal process that lasted 16 months. “A situation like this will make you or break you,” Nicholas says. “I knew I would do whatever it took to win my daughter back.”
The girls stayed with Nicholas for two months, but then DCF had to take them into foster care. Nicholas wasn’t biologically Riley’s father, and he wasn’t legally Raylea’s father. Until he won custody of Raylea, for 16 months they saw each other just once a week for an hour. But their bond was strong enough to survive the traumas and challenges.
As Nicholas made his case for custody, Ellis was by his side to help. Cherish knew what would strengthen his case: to get his GED, follow up on job leads, and enter a support program for single fathers. As Nicholas responded wholeheartedly to every suggestion, Cherish was happy to write a character reference to make his case even stronger.
Throughout this process, Nicholas and Cherish bonded closely. They were always texting as Nicholas stayed on course to win Raylea back. A Nurturing Fathers program gave him different perspectives on being a parent and a support network of other men. He earned his GED and got a job in recovery at Sullivan House in Jamaica Plain, a substance use treatment center where he got help early in his own recovery journey. Nicholas is grateful to be a role model for others. He has been clean for seven years.
When Raylea had her third birthday about a month after rejoining her father, they celebrated at a party with his extended family. Nicholas and Raylea’s world now includes his brothers and sisters and their children. A year later Cherish made Raylea’s birthday special by giving Nicholas two Target gift cards to buy the Spiderman tricycle that Raylea wanted. Raylea was thrilled and still loves riding that trike.
Cherish says, “I believe that everyone deserves someone who looks like hope.” Nicholas is living proof that trust and hope can inspire the determination to succeed against difficult odds. As he once told Cherish, “You believed in me. I didn’t have that before, and it made a huge difference.”
