From Lower Wacker to a Life of Promise
For years, if you’d asked Anthony where he lived, he would have responded with two words: Lower Wacker. This section of underground roads, buildings, and alleys in the Chicago loop is “home” to a mostly invisible community of homeless individuals. From 2003 until late 2019, that’s where you could find Anthony, when he wasn’t doing another stint in rehab.
Anthony was first introduced to drugs when he was 9 but says he didn’t start using them heavily until he was 19. “From my twenties to my fifties, I was in active addiction,” he said. Heroin was his drug of choice.
He got clean with various programs for periods of time, including ones run by The Salvation Army, but says, “I didn’t reap the benefits of sobriety because I didn’t put in the work.” Life also brought tragedies that challenged his sobriety. After the deaths of two of his daughters, in 2013 and 2016, he started using again to numb his pain and grief.
But those times in rehab made more of an impact on Anthony than he realized. “The Salvation Army and NA [Narcotics Anonymous] planted a seed in me that grew without my permission,” he said. So, on November 17, 2019, when Anthony finally decided he’d had enough, he knew where to go.
Finding Freedom
After detoxing at a medical facility, Anthony went to The Salvation Army’s Harbor Light inpatient substance use disorder treatment program. He was still in rough shape physically, and said the staff and fellow clients “grabbed hold of me.”
“It’s a solid program,” Anthony said, noting he likes combination of 12-step program with the emphasis on spirituality. “The Salvation Army taught me something real special,” he said. “Prayer. You have to keep praying and God will make a way out.”
The Harbor Light program is located in The Salvation Army’s Freedom Center complex, and Anthony says the name says it all. “That’s truly what it is,” he said. “If you put in the work, you find freedom.”
Anthony has now been clean for one year and two months. “Life is great,” he said. Unfortunately, it’s still hard. Last March he lost his father, the man he called his superhero. But with this loss Anthony realized that using again wasn’t going to bring him back. “The Salvation Army held me and helped me through the loss,” he said. He’s lost other family members this past year due to COVID-19, and through it all he’s been able to maintain his sobriety.
The Promise of Recovery
During this whole process, Majors Merrill and Nancy Powers, who oversee the Harbor Light program, saw something in Anthony that he didn’t yet see himself. “They believed in me and gave me hope,” he said. They also gave him a job. Anthony now does housekeeping at the Harbor Light facility.
“If you’d told me a year ago I’d be working at The Salvation Army, I’d have looked at you like you’re crazy,” he said. But he finds the job fulfilling. “It’s a joy to get up and go to work every day,” he said, adding that he regularly gets the chance to share his experiences in the program with the current residents. “God gives me the opportunity to speak to them, give them a hope shot. I tell them The Salvation Army can help. I’m a living witness.”
Anthony’s family has also taken notice of how he’s changed. He’s the oldest cousin and nephew in his family in the Chicago area. “They call me now for strength and support. No one ever did that before,” he said, tearing up. “That’s the promise of recovery, one of the gifts of being clean.”
All this belief in his potential is rubbing off on Anthony himself. He’s started to not only have dreams for his future, but also pursue them. Besides staying clean, he also wants to start a greeting card company in the future. “Things are falling into place for that,” he said. “It’s one of my lifelong dreams.”
Anthony is grateful for the journey that has brought him to this joyful and stable place in life. And he’s grateful for the place where that journey began. “The Salvation Army means hope,” he said. “I thank God for this place.”