Married at 16, Stacy spent the next 11 years in an abusive relationship. At 17, she began drinking to cover up the pain – to numb her fears and anxiety.
It was not the life she had wanted to live, or the life she knew was best for her four children. “I wasn’t being the mother I was supposed to be,” she says. “My drinking was a cover-up for my pain.”
When her drinking finally led to the loss of her job and home, she knew her kids needed to be “somewhere safe.”
“I was tired of losing everything,” she remembers. “I often couldn’t go to work because I would have a black eye. I would lie and cover up the abuse. I’d stay in a room away from my kids.”
For a time, Stacy’s brother helped her out. But when her continued drinking put her in the hospital with pancreatitis, she knew she had to make a change. “After 44 years, it was time to clean up my act.”
“Being here has brought me a whole new life,” Stacy says. It’s a good life where she has a relationship with God and a better relationship with her children, who were fi nally able to express themselves about how they felt about her drinking.
“It was hard for me to hear,” Stacy says. “My oldest son had some resentment and didn’t want to have anything to do with me. I apologized and said, ‘We can work through this.’ And he’s still on my team.”
Going to church and having people she can rely on – including the staff and the other women in the program at our Women’s Center – has changed Stacy’s life in significant ways.
“This community is a good thing for women who don’t know where to start. Women who just need to start somewhere with a good community by their side.”
Stacy’s goal now is to “stay around positive people.” “I want to rely on God and go to church. I want to take my time and walk by faith…to grow into working and get back into a relationship with my kids.”
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