“I don’t have a long history of any crimes, till I started using. I was just an every day citizen. I worked. I was a good mother. I was a good friend, a good employee. And then you start using, and you are no longer any of these things”.
“When I was on the street, it seemed like I was in prison. With four kids, I never got the chance to do anything by myself, for myself. When I had the chance, I would get high. In prison I can work on me.”
“My other kids they don’t know me. They have pictures of me, but they don’t
know me. Every time I look at my son, I hurt. Because I was doing
drugs. I just did not care. After I gave birth to him in the hospital,
I didn’t care. Now that I am sober, I can’t see me like that. I don’t know how I did it. Seven years, not even thinking about my kids, not even trying to contact them. It hurts so bad”.
There was a time when I was getting high, and
my parents were trying to help me. Then they just washed their hands
off of me. All I remember now is the time that I have not seen them. I
forget the time in the beginning when I used to steal from them. They
were trying to help me. Putting me in this rehab and that rehab, and I
kept leaving. I kept saying that I was going to get better, and I never got better. They saw me throw my whole life down the tubes. My parents”.