In Her Words: Angel’s Story

I was born in San Francisco raised by my hard-working grandmother who purchased her own home in the Bayview.

San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood

During my freshman year of high school, I began smoking weed and drinking. l managed to graduate in 2003 only by the grace of God. In 2011, I took a big hit. My grandmother who had raised me, loved me and was the matriarch of the family died. That tore me up. I could not process her death. This led me to drink more, numbing the pain of her loss. My family fell completely apart after her passing, and it seemed as if nothing in life mattered anymore.

Before my grandmother passed, I had a baby and knowing what dysfunction looked like, I vowed to be better than my past for my son. But life began to decline. I received a DUI while my son was in the car, and I went to jail. I tried crack once and I was hooked. Eventually, I made my way to the Tenderloin and where I became homeless.

The Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco

I was at a crossroads in my life, and I needed to make a decision: to live or die. I finally admitted I had a problem. A case manager directed me to Epiphany Center. I liked the way the organization touched on spirituality, and their focus on women and children resonated with me as a mother. Epiphany represented the qualities I desperately wanted to get back: how to live, how to get back to the person my grandmother raised, to be better for my son, my family, and community - and more importantly for myself.

At Epiphany Center, after being broken for so long, I started to see the light again. God says, “all we need is a little faith, the size of a mustard seed.” Epiphany Center gave me that faith.

Epiphany’s Parent-Child Center is a licensed therapeutic early education program for parents and young children, 0-3 years of age who need support, compassion, and skill building in a trauma-informed environment.

I walked into Epiphany broken and walked out a new person! I learned how to be alone, how to forgive myself and process who I was and who I wanted to become. I learned to be responsible for myself.

Epiphany’s staff were great advocates, consistently showing me love, support and encouragement. They believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. Having a full year in the residential recovery program and a year in their Step-Down transitional home truly helped me to get out of my own way. I grew from being a follower to a leader. I eventually went back to school for peer counseling; I never thought I would be able to go back to school!

Angel shares her struggles and successes at Epiphany’s Benefit Party & Show.

Today I am in a place I never thought I could be -- sober, healthy, and happy. Because of Epiphany, I now have my own home, a family, a new mindset, and the tools to continue progressing in my recovery journey.

Epiphany has given me a second chance to a first-class life.

Being sober has helped me to repair my relationships with my mom and son. I have progressed in my career and am now employed as a case manager. I have joined a support network for women - giving back what was given to me freely. Epiphany Center’s program works!

“Being sober has helped me to repair my relationships with my mom and son,” says Angel.

I am keeping the door open for others just like the door was kept open for me. God has saved me and given me the chance to be a beacon of light to help those who are struggling and lost. Without a shadow of a doubt, the strong, independent, responsible woman you see today wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Epiphany Center!

Thank you for all that YOU, Epiphany’s supporters, have made possible for me, and for so many other women like me: women who believe, have faith, and want a better life.

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