Tammy’s Story
High school graduation should be an exciting and hopeful time in a young person’s life.
But for me, it was full of grief.
My mother, my sister and my nephew all died within a few months of each other when I was 18 years old. When my life should have been starting, it felt like a piece of me was missing.
I was really close to my mother and losing her was devastating.
I did the best I could to survive, but it wasn’t long before I started drinking and using hard drugs.
I became a bar-fly. I ended up in the Downtown Eastside for 10 years.
Eventually I moved out to Abbotsford and went through treatment. I was sober for a time, but I didn’t do the work. So it didn't stick.
My fear of abandonment and crippling grief persisted and I filled that void with all the wrong things: drugs, relationships, co-dependency. I became abusive and was abused. I didn’t know how to be in a healthy relationship.
I was in a dark place. I experienced psychosis and anger spells, I was afraid to go home, so I’d sleep outside and be on the streets. I would reach out for help and then run from the help that was offered. I escaped from the hospital. I didn’t know how to trust anyone.
But I held on to hope. I held on to a small thing someone said to me: just have faith in the mustard seed and good things will start to grow for you.
Something about this stuck, and I would often reach for it. Seeking help and hope from above.
One night, I had been crying out all night for help. But it felt like it would never come and so I did something stupid and got myself arrested.
I was in jail for a month awaiting sentencing. I got back on my medication and sobered up. I wanted to try recovery again.
No other treatment center would take me when I wasn’t sentenced yet. But Hope for Freedom would.
So on May 24th, 2023, I walked through the doors to Glory House at Hope for Freedom.
Now that I look back, I can see that God was answering my prayer for help that night when I landed in jail.
Today, I am so thankful for this place. I am changed by this place.
When I started doing the work of recovery at Hope for Freedom, I felt like I could do it with peace. I was finally getting rid of this dark and heavy stuff that I had carried with me for my whole adult life. The program here helped me get to the core of my issues – to the core of the pain that was feeding my addiction.
I felt hope and the seed that was there all along started to grow inside of me. I felt more knowledge and more awareness. And I found my faith in God.
I didn’t trust anyone before, but at Glory House they showed me how to trust people again.
The staff were here for me. They wanted to see the best of me. I could breathe when I walked in the door. They made me feel comfortable.
They put a smile on my face and I knew that I was home.