Helen: From homeless to grateful
Three years ago, Helen Webster, 60, was living on the streets of Coeur d’Alene. Today, she has an entirely new life and wants to say a giant thank you to the community which helped her.
The details of her homeless days are hazy.
“Half the time I didn’t know where I was. I remember trying to find a place to sleep on the street in between alleys. Just a lady and a shopping cart…a drunk on the street,” Webster said.
She remembers wearing layers of baggy clothes so she could sneak a bottle of vodka from the grocery store. She remembers waking up in the emergency room, getting stitches in her forehead. She remembers starting every morning with a hangover, wondering when and where she could get her next drink. And she remembers the humiliation.
“People would just turn their noses up, shoo you out of stores because they knew you had no money,” Webster said.
Her clearest memories, however, revolve around the kindness of strangers — food banks, hot meals, a bed on the floor, and one chaplain who befriended her when she was detoxing in jail and kept tabs on her for more than two years.
Today, Webster has been clean and sober for almost three years. She graduated from Union Gospel Mission LIFE Recovery at the Center for Women & Children in Coeur d’Alene last summer and has been working for almost two years at the North Idaho Eye Institute.
But she hasn’t forgotten where she came from. She wants to extend the kindness she received to those still on the street.
“It’s just amazing how my life has changed,” she said, “and if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. UGM gave me the tools, the foundation, the love and support I needed, and I want to share my blessing with as many others as possible.”
Webster knows her second chance came as a result of the community’s generosity, and she’s doing her best to be part of providing those same opportunities for others — attending and helping with ongoing recovery groups both at UGM and her church, Heart of the City.
“From the bottom of my heart, thank you,” Webster said.
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Barbara Comito is Union Gospel Mission’s director of marketing and communications.