I was at the Days Inn at first. I went into rehab in the summer of 2002. That’s when it all started- my recovery.

I am 36 years old. I have been doing drugs all my life. I am an alcoholic, too. Me and my husband, he went into rehab first. I was just too scared to stop, at first. That’s all I knew how, a way of living. That’s my life. Pain medication, too. That started- I was on it for nine years. Injuries from car accidents from DWI’s… But that’s what I’m from. I was born into an alcoholic family.

It was a lot for my kids. God, I realized I wasn’t going to get any younger. If I could do it, I was going to do it.

Yeah, I am on methadone now. In Greenfield, Massachusetts. I tried to get into the Burlington clinic, I’ve been on a waiting list up there for a year now. Vermont needs a clinic bad. I’ve got one day take homes because I’ve got a couple of relapses. My husband and I drive down every day. I was up to five take homes. But I relapsed, because it was just too much, living in a hotel. After a while it just takes its toll out on you.

I had to relocate. I was from up north. When I went into rehab, I had to go to the Hudson clinic. Instead of traveling three hours a day and not being able to get a job, I relocated to Hudson because I couldn’t get into Greenfield. I started in Hudson a year and a half ago. Once you’re into that clinic it’s easier to transfer, but you can’t just get into Greenfield. My husband was started in Hudson, too. But I had to be in the state of Vermont for the state to pay for it. With us both on it, that was a lot of money a week- it was $122 for a person. So it was like $240 a week for the both of us. We just couldn’t pay for that and a place to live.

He’s doing carpentry. He’s had a couple of jobs though because of the pressor of traveling every day. Back and forth. Everybody wants you there at a certain time and you just can’t get there because the clinic doesn’t open until 6 and it’s half an hour there, half an hour back. He’s had a couple of jobs.

It started out, welfare, me and my husband split because of the financial part. We did it so I could get into a place. And the pressures of starting recovery- it was tough. We’ve been married 13 years and also having a drug habit. Living clean together- it was like getting to know each other again. It’s been difficult. He stays with a friend and coworker.

The pressures of finding an apartment- I mean we ruined our credit. From all the years… It wasn’t the problem of paying rent, we always paid our rent, but the bills. You know. I mean like a telephone bill, that bad credit from owing an electric company, it catches up. At the time of using you don’t think of that stuff, you know. We have always had a place to live. And now all of a sudden that we live in recovery we can’t find a place. It’s not right. It’s not okay. A lot of people don’t give people in recovery a chance, a second chance, you know what I mean?