“Thank God I Asked for Help”
For Emily, the day that changed her life began with the worst possible news; her mother was on life support.
“I got the call from the hospital,” the recent Megan’s House graduate told a hushed room gathered for her graduation ceremony. “I told her how much I loved her and how sorry I was for what I’d put her through. It was the last time we spoke. She died the next day.”
Homeless, scared, and eventually incarcerated, Emily began the long road to recovery in August of 2016 at a different treatment home. But with too much freedom and not enough support there, she eventually relapsed. Two months later, she walked through the door of Megan’s House and realized it was the best decision she ever made.
“I was with people who loved me when I couldn’t love myself,” Emily recalled. Megan’s House didn’t just show me how to put down a drug, it also taught me to believe in myself. Thank God I asked for help.”
The transformation was remarkable. Newer residents came to know Emily as funny and an inspiration, one saying “it’s impossible to be miserable around you.” Yet another young woman thanked her for being “one of the first people to take an interest in me and asking how I was doing.”
After five years of starts and stops, Emily’s family is finally optimistic about her recovery. “You’ve built a life here that you never could have built in the environment you grew up in,” said a smiling grandmother, while her tearful dad thanked everyone in the room. “Words can’t express my gratitude to this house. Thank you, Megan’s House, and thank you Emily for getting better.”
The road to recovery continues at Erin’s House, the Megan House Foundation’s first Success Home, where Emily will live with other young women who share similar journeys. It’s a long way from being homeless or imprisoned, and even farther away from the phone call that changed a life forever.
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