From Surviving to Thriving

I slowly opened my eyes and found myself staring at the feet of people walking by. My body ached from lying on the hard pavement and my stomach growled. As always, my first thought was finding food and a public restroom. I also had to find a safer place to sleep tonight. The streets are so dangerous for a woman on her own. How much longer could I go on like this? How was I going to survive another day?

Fighting to survive was not new to me. I was born prematurely to a single mom who was a heroin addict and alcoholic. I weighed less than two and a half pounds at birth. I went to live with my great-grandparents but caring for a young child was too much for them. At four years old, I was placed in foster care where I was molested by my foster brother. After that, I shuffled through group homes where they put the kids with “issues.”

I reunited with my mother, then sober, when I was 13. My happiness ended quickly when I found out she had cancer. When she passed away six months later, I began drinking to numb the pain. By age 14, I was an alcoholic.

Being a young teenager on my own made me an easy target for predators. I started dating a much older man and within a year we were married. I stayed with him for six years and suffered 30 broken bones and 10 knocked out teeth before running away. I fled to California where I met my second husband. He was a drug dealer who fueled my addiction. After five years, that marriage ended as well.

For the next 20 years, I survived by dealing drugs and spent a total of six years in jail. My initial experience with homelessness began the first time I was released. I had lost my apartment, car, and all my belongings. I had no clothes, so I left jail in a paper suit. Whatever shred of self-esteem I had left was gone.

After a few more trips to jail, I knew I couldn’t go on this way. I went to rehab and got clean but worried that I would relapse if I went back to my old surroundings. That’s when something incredible happened that changed my life forever. I found WISEPlace.

For the first time in years, I had a safe, warm bed and healthy meals. WISEPlace gave me the support system that I never had before. Through regular counseling, I started to believe in myself and work through my past. A case manager helped me with personal accountability, and I began to move forward step by step. WISEPlace provided bus passes for my job search, interview clothes, and a computer room to prepare resumes. I found a job, then a second job, and began saving money.

I was able to handle some medical issues, buy a car, and most importantly, save money. Over four years, I worked two full-time jobs and saved every penny possible to pay off my huge IRS bill. WISEPlace enlisted a volunteer tax attorney to help me reduce the debt and set up a payment plan. In six years, I was able to pay it all off — over $100,000! During this time, I worked to get my felonies retried as misdemeanors. I paid the court fines and now no longer have any felonies on my record.

When I left WISEPlace, I started an entry level job at a merchant services company. Five and a half years and three promotions later, I now run my company’s California Division! I live in my own apartment just a few blocks away. I could never have imagined in my darkest days that I would have the life and career that I have today.

I’m going on eight years of sobriety, have my same AA sponsor, and now sponsor four others. I also volunteer at rehabs to take women to meetings. I believe in giving a hand up to those in need, just like so many did for me when I needed it the most.