Though Suzanne enjoyed spending time on her father’s farm in Quarryville, she was taken to a child psychologist at age 10 for depression. “I felt like I wasn’t really wanted as a young girl. I felt like I just existed,” Suzanne explained. She turned to alcohol in high school to cope with family alcoholism and sexual abuse.
She continued into her adult years without a healthy support system. When the prescription medicine she was abusing for chronic neck pain lost its potency, Suzanne’s sister introduced her to heroin. Suzanne’s husband kept her supplied with both pain medication and heroine.
Then her 23-year marriage ended, and Suzanne’s depression and drug overdose landed her in an intensive care unit. After detoxing from the drugs, she moved in with family members only to realize their drug habits were not supporting her choice of recovery. She needed to quickly escape these influences if she wanted to maintain her dreams of a better life. With nowhere else to go, she came to Water Street Mission, a ministry providing rescue and renewal services for homeless individuals in Lancaster County.
Suzanne says the Women’s Shelter at Water Street Mission is teaching her to follow through on her commitments and goals rather than giving up. Through an anger management class at Water Street Mission, she’s learning to deal with anger spiritually by giving the problem to God. She says she is learning to talk things out instead of letting problems build up.
More importantly, Suzanne is strengthening her relationship with God. “This relationship with God is one I’ve looked for all my life,” she exclaims. For Suzanne, surrendering is no longer a sign of weakness. “I’m amazed at the great things God can do when you’re not trying to control everything yourself,” she says.
Suzanne is planning to take a computer literacy class and hopes to attend Lancaster Bible College some day. In April, she plans to move into a transitional living facility to help her adjust to life on her own. She dreams of better relationships with her adult children. “It’s hard for me to see the pain in their eyes. I long for the day when my kids will say, ‘Mom, I forgive you.’”
She’s also learning to manager her chronic neck pain in safe and healthy ways. She says living drug-free feels amazing. “Now that I found out how good life can be, I never want to go back to my addiction,” Suzanne exclaims. “What better place than the Mission to try to start over?”
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