On a Friday in 2018, Monique’s life changed for good. “It was a Friday, and I walked up the driveway and into Bethel to change my life,” she remembers. Monique was living in a shack. At the time, she thought it was a good option. Because at least then, she could still use drugs. Her addiction started when she was only 11 or 12, in the 6th grade.

“I got jumped into a gang, and then I started hanging out with older people and older crowds,” she says. “Then I started selling drugs. . . I met the father of my kids when I was 17, and he was from LA, and he sold drugs, and it just escalated to an even bigger situation.” “Eventually, it all started to fall apart. Every time something bad would happen, it would just get worse and worse and worse until I ended up in that horrible little shack with nothing.” When she says nothing, she means it. Even the most precious realities in her life were stolen.

“The kids stopped talking to me, and that only made me spin out more and worse into my addiction,” she says. “I would have to go to the hospital, and they would fill me with liquids because I wasn’t eating, and I used to do meth, so I wouldn’t eat for like weeks at a time.” The doctors told her that her addiction was going to kill her. She says she was at the point where she didn’t even care. But then, a relationship changed her life. Someone she knew went through the 12-month Residential Recovery Program at the Mission, and she saw how it changed their life. Her best friend’s mom, who had gone through the program and has been sober for 18 years, encouraged her to fill out an application. Her Last Chance “It was like they always say, Bethel House is your last resort,” Monique says.

“I was scared; I was so nervous. I wanted to get better, but I didn’t know if I could because I was already so far gone.” She went through the program and graduated. As of the beginning of this year, she celebrated 5 years sober. She now works at a local high-end grocery store, has reconnected with her mom, is living in a home – not a shack – and has a relationship with God. She also has restored relationships with all her kids – including her 22-year-old daughter, who had refused to talk to her for years. “I’m a totally changed person now. I don’t even recognize the person I used to be. It’s amazing what Bethel House has done me and my family.”