Services and Programs - Changing Lives

Blanketed by Love

Like so many of the homeless men and women you see on the streets, Fern has a heartbreaking story filled with pain, loss and abuse. She married early and had five children. Yet, parenting a large family was the least of Fern’s concerns. She had to contend with a husband who was addicted to drugs and abused her mentally and physically.

For more than two decades, Fern bore the brunt of her husband's tirades, working hard to shield her children from their father's wrath. But when she suffered the loss of both of her parents then her granddaughter in a few years' time, something inside Fern snapped.

"I couldn't face it, so I didn't," she remembers. Fern tried to drown her pain in drugs, and in no time she was a full-blown addict. Ashamed of what she had become, she fled her family and lived on the streets.

"My family would look for me, but I would hide from them. I didn't want to go home because I was ashamed," she confesses. "Sometimes I would walk all night because I was scared to fall asleep. I'd walk until I got so tired I couldn't walk anymore. Then one night, I passed out on the train and when I woke up, I was in Bridgeport Mental Health Hospital. They told me I needed help."

Fern called several rehab facilities, but because she had no money, she was turned away. Thankfully, she remembered seeing Bridgeport Rescue Mission while she was on the streets and called us for help. As soon as she arrived, she was blanketed with hope and warmed with the love of God.

"They took me in and made me feel that I was somebody, I had a purpose in my life and God loves me," Fern says. She joined our New Life Discipleship Program, and with the help of our Christian counselors, worked through the grief that led to her addiction.

As part of the New Life Discipleship Program, Fern works at the Mission's new short-stay emergency shelter for homeless women, and there she encourages other homeless women. Clean, sober and full of joy, she's back in touch with her children and plans to go to college and get a degree in early childhood education.

"I've come a long, long way," says Fern. "I will never forget where I came from and how far I've come. Now, I'm going to give back."



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