“This place gave me something I hadn’t had in a long time: hope.”
Tanya’s life unraveled when her husband went to prison. Left to raise her six children all alone, she struggled to stay afloat – financially and emotionally. Finally, the weight of it all became too much to bear. Desperate to ease her stress, she made some poor choices.
“I was always a drinker,” she admits, “but then came the drugs. It started as a weekend thing. Then it became every day.”
To support her substance abuse, she baked and sold cakes – something she once enjoyed. But now it only reminded her of what her life had become.
In 2022, she had a terrifying experience. While visiting a friend she considered family, she was poisoned with an unknown substance. She woke up in a hospital, intubated and hanging on to life by a thread. “You’d think that would’ve been my rock bottom,” she says.
But she still struggled to break free of substance abuse’s hold.
Finally, two years later, Tanya did reach a turning point. “One day I looked into the mirror and said, ‘Who is this woman? I don’t recognize her.’” As she recalled the pain and heartache she’d brought on to herself and her family, she said, “I’m done – with being tired, with hurting, with losing.” And she asked for our help.
Today, Tanya is thriving in our LifeBuilders program. Through Bible study, life skills development, workforce development and faithbased counseling, we help individuals like Tanya learn to care for themselves and become productive members of society.
“The hospitality team, the classes, the other women – it’s all been so healing. This place gave me something I hadn’t had in a long time: hope.”
Tanya is rebuilding her relationship with God. She’s also reconnecting with her children and grandchildren and hopes to become a Christian role model for them. She credits the faith-based foundation of the program with helping her rediscover who she really is. “I learned that Jesus Christ loves me,” she says. “God forgave me. But I had to forgive myself. That was the hardest part.”
She now serves on our hospitality team and continues to dream of a future filled with purpose. “I want to get my own place again, join a church and bake cakes – not to support substance abuse, but because I love it.”
“This time it’s different,” Tanya smiles. “This time I’m doing it with God.”
Tanya hopes her story will inspire others to seek help and embrace God’s grace.
“If I hadn’t come to the City Rescue Mission, I’d be dead. But today? I feel like an 8.5 out of 10. And I’m climbing.”