Finding Her Way Back: T's Story

When we entered T’s new apartment, she had her leg propped on a lime-green ottoman, an ice-filled Ziploc bag resting on her scarred knee. It's always hard to see someone sidelined by an injury, but she remained in good spirits.

“Welcome to my home! Took y’all long enough. I got ready just for you. Showering is a tough job with a bum knee!”

T has a 1,000 watt smile and radiant brown eyes. She’s the kind of person who is almost disarmingly positive, always able to find a silver lining, even in the face of tragedy. It’s an admirable quality in anyone, especially in a woman who has experienced violence in so many forms. Our minds do what they must to protect us from the world. And sometimes from ourselves.

For a long time, T was just surviving. Not living.

Out on the streets in Reno, addiction had taken hold, and distance from her children grew year after year. She knew what she was losing, but didn’t know how to stop it. Finally, she made a choice: to try again. With help from her sister, she came to Iowa to be closer to her daughters. The people she never stopped loving.

But starting over wasn’t simple. She relapsed. Trust broke. The grip of addiction led her down a difficult path to trouble with the law. Eventually she was sent to prison. It could have been another ending, but she decided it would be a beginning.

“It was an eye opener,” she says quietly. “I made it through.”

T stayed sober while incarcerated. She took classes. She sat with herself and made a decision that this time had to be different.

When she came back, reality hit hard. Barriers shot up quickly. No job calls. Nowhere steady to live. Strained family relationships. Pain from an injury. The weight of starting over felt heavy.

But this time, something changed. Instead of trying to carry everything alone, she reached out. When she met the team from Friends of the Family, she didn’t pull away, she leaned in.

“They came through for me,” she says. “They saved me.”

With Friends of the Family's help, she moved into a place of her own. A door she can lock. A bed that’s hers. A space to begin again. Now, her days look different. She listens to music while cleaning her new place. She meets with her psychiatrist. She attends recovery meetings when she can. She asks for help when she needs it. She stays connected.

“Before, I thought I had to do it all by myself,” she says. “Now I know I can’t.”

What keeps her going are her daughters. One is building her future as an EMT. The other is still growing up. On Mother’s Day, they spent time together - talking, laughing, taking pictures.

“It felt good,” she says. “It felt real.”

She holds onto that feeling. Her goals aren’t complicated, but they mean everything: keep her housing, stay sober, rebuild trust, and one day have her girls over to bake cookies in her own kitchen.

“I want them to see me doing it right,” she says.

She knows she’s not finished. There are still hard days. Still moments when it would be easier to give up. But she doesn’t.

“I’m a believer,” she says. “I just got off course.”

Now, every day, she’s choosing to find her way back.

Her story didn’t change overnight. It changed because someone showed up, stayed, and gave her a real chance.

That’s what we do. We walk alongside people who are ready to try again.

Your support makes that possible.