Liberty Community Services

A Profile in Courage

"Potentials I Didn’t Know I Had"

When Mary Wilson* says that Liberty Community Services “has brought my family back together again,” it is with characteristic modesty for her own accomplishments. Mary is a mother of five children, a woman of compassionate strength and, as she obviously enjoys telling, a grandmother of two lovely girls.

Things have changed a lot, so much, Mary says, that “nobody would ever believe it.” She credits in particular the staff of Liberty’s Transitional Living Program, where she has lived since October of 2002. “They are like no other people in the world. They saw, before I did, potentials that I didn’t know I had.”

Mary was born in New Haven and was married at sixteen to a man who introduced her to drug use. She had a daughter who passed away in infancy. A son, who has since helped motivate her fight against drugs, was partially paralyzed by a childhood injury. When her marriage ended after twelve years, she moved to Georgia, remarried and worked hard. She had a home and family, a time that ended with the dissolution of that marriage.

Mary returned to New Haven just a month before her sister died of AIDS, to another marriage and an increasingly difficult struggle against drugs and a life that led to her contracting HIV. She felt “like nobody cared,” she says, as she reached a point where her drug use was constant and she rarely left her apartment.

After many unsuccessful treatments for substance abuse and psychological issues, Mary’s strength finally gave out. She was hospitalized with heart and kidney disease, damage she attributes to her years of using. Her weight had diminished to ninety pounds. Her doctors told her she had four months to live. With nowhere to go but return to an unhealthy relationship of abuse and drugs, Mary was put in touch with Liberty by a social worker at the hospital.

Liberty’s combination of supportive staff and homelike living environment gave her the stability and encouragement to regain her strength. What was different about Liberty, she says, was the way she was treated. “I feel like I’m loved here, I feel special. We do special things together.” Mary has seen a play for the first time in her life, gardened at the house, visited the beach, something she had not done since childhood. She has been free of drugs for over a year, and is back up to a hundred and twenty-five pounds. Her doctor says she is the healthiest she has seen her.

Along with her remarkable perseverance, Mary has a lot of compassion, knowing that there are others still struggling with the same hardships she faced. “I know I still have a long way to go, but now I feel strong enough to share my experiences with other people like myself, to help people still doing the same thing.”

How did Liberty help? “I didn’t want to be the way I was,” Mary remembers. “I always prayed to God. I grew up in a church; I knew God was there for me. Then I met this group of people who are there for me. They give you hope.”