“Dad, you’re nothing but a crackhead. I don't ever want to see you again.” My son was 15, and he was right. He and my ex-wife had come to my apartment and found me getting high, again. I’d been a functional addict for more than two decades,...
I used to think everyone’s book was already written. Mine was always going to be about a rough childhood, a prison term, broken relationships and decades of heavy drinking. One night I looked around the cheap hotel room where I was living and thought: This...
I was 14 when I first got into trouble with drugs and alcohol. At the restaurant where I worked, I could get any drug I wanted. I used drugs pretty much every day from then on. In my late 20s, I fell into 12 years...
I quit my factory job in South Beloit in March 2020 – unfortunately, just a few days before the lockdown started. I regretted the decision, of course, because when everything shut down it was hard to get another job. I got a few odd jobs...
It seems like I fell out of the sky and landed in the safety net that is Rockford Rescue Mission. I’m from Rockford, but I got a commercial driver’s license and moved to Florida in 2004 to be a truck driver. I lost my CDL during...
Lisa lost custody of her children as she battled an addiction that destroyed her marriage and left her homeless. Then she fell into a relationship with a man who was abusive, and a tent was their only means of shelter. Her drinking escalated. Her health...
At times during the pandemic, volunteers could not work at the Mission. In order to keep serving three meals a day to our residents, guests and community, our Life Recovery residents heroically rose to the occasion. Bobbie / Women’s Life Recovery resident ‘We can do this. We’ve got...
Mike Marx: Addiction is like being trapped in a hole. You can see the guy on the other side of the mirror, and you know what he wants, but you can’t do it. You don’t know how. I was born prematurely, with a cleft lip and a...
Tiffany & George's Story: Tiffany and her 8-year-old son, George, are two of the 685 women and children who stayed at Rockford Rescue Mission’s Women’s Crisis Center in 2019. Sadly, Tiffany’s story of trauma is all too common. Trapped in a toxic relationship, her life was threatened...
Rex’s Story: I have a new name People used to call me names. Reckless. Loser. Nobody. Let me tell you how God transformed me into a man I thought I could never be. I shouldn’t even be here. I overdosed five times during a 10-year struggle. I...
