Mary absolutely did not want to come to the Kokomo Rescue Mission.
But she didn’t have much of a choice. A judge sent her to the Mission after she’d served a two-year prison sentence for drug possession.
“At first, I was really mad about it,” she says. “I was hoping to go home, but the judge sent me here. I was really resistant. I was crying, and I felt like I couldn’t do it.”
But that would soon change, thanks to your patient compassion.
Mary’s journey to the Mission started a few years ago in the wake of a split with her husband. Her ex moved away, leaving Mary, then 24, as a single mother of two. She was overwhelmed by life’s new challenges.
“I started hanging out with the wrong crowd and got into drugs,” Mary says.
She had never used drugs before, but says drugs helped her to cope with the trauma of her split. She thought she was doing okay … till she got caught.
When Mary got into a minor auto accident while high on meth, police searched her car and found drugs in her purse. She was arrested, convicted and sentenced to two years. Her children ended up with her mother while Mary served her sentence.
Mary ended up at Open Arms — our shelter for women. She’d only been there a short time when she violated her probation. She went back to jail for two weeks, and then was sent back to the Mission.
“And that’s when my attitude changed,” she says. “When I first got out, I had taken my freedom for granted. But when I went back to jail, I saw how quickly it could be taken away.
“That’s not the life I wanted anymore. I wanted to change, and I wanted to do what I needed to do. Because I didn’t want my kids to see me in jail again. I didn’t want to put them through that.”
With that kind of motivation, Mary was now all-in with the Mission and our life-changing programs. She’s opening up to the staff about her issues. “Because they’re really good listeners. They’ve helped me realize that I can’t, and I don’t have to, do everything on my own,” she says.
Mary says her faith has gotten a lot stronger at Open Arms, that she goes to church weekly, and that she plans to be baptized.
She is now reunited with her children, working toward her goal of saving up enough money to get her own place — and ready for her best Christmas ever.
“If it weren’t for the Kokomo Rescue Mission, I definitely would not be where I am today,” Mary says. “I’d probably be back in jail or, honestly, dead. But now I feel equipped to tackle life.”
Supporters like you help people turn their life around. We’re so thankful!