I didn’t mean to kill myself,
but I figured I would die.
The next phase in Sharon‘s life is ―so sordid that it‘s hard to
admit.‖ These were the darkest and most difficult times in
her life. She couldn‘t imagine that, with her background and
education, she would end up almost dying in a motel room in
Morgan, Arkansas. ―I didn‘t mean to kill myself, but I figured
I would die. I went to that motel with a whole lot of vodka
and decided I would drink until I couldn‘t drink anymore.‖
Sharon was completely void of self-esteem, and she didn‘t see
any reason to go on living. ―I figured I would just pass out and
take my medicine and that, hopefully, would be the end of it.‖
You don’t come to Our House
to lie down. You get to work.
Then Sharon got a phone call from her worried children; it
had been months since they‘d heard from her. ―They got me
out of my stupor, at least enough that I got the strength to
open up the phone book and look up shelters.‖ Sharon knew
nothing of Our House before she made that phone call one
Sunday afternoon. By Monday morning, Sharon was pulling
into the guard shack. ―I just said, ‗I hope you have a place for
me.‘ I was so tired I felt like I could come in and lie down
for weeks. Of course I didn‘t. You don‘t come to Our House to
lie down. As soon as you‘re settled in a bed, you get to work.‖
Sharon admits that the move to Our House was a difficult
transition for her. ―It was major for me to live the life of rules
at Our House: get my chore done, find a job. It was like being
a baby and starting completely over. I had no idea whether
I would stay. I just knew that there were obviously people
here that were going to help me, who cared about me, that
it was safe, and it was clean. And that was as good as my
life was going to be for a while.‖
Sharon did stay.
continued on page 7