By Peg McNichol | The Oakland Press | Published December 25, 2022

Renewed holiday joy for Pontiac residents recovering from addiction

Anita Laws is happy this Christmas for many reasons. For starters, the Pontiac resident knows what day it is. At 54, Laws said, she’s missed a lot of holidays because she was mired in addiction and rarely aware of the date.

The day Laws was born, medical tests showed drugs in her system. Pregnant at 14, she left school and went on to have six children. One son died at two years old, after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

“I never had a chance to be a child. I had to grow up fast and then I still didn’t really grow up,” she said, recalling a time when drugs were common and many among her family and friends used them. So did she.

“I thought it was just meant for me to use drugs all my life, that I wasn’t no better for nothing else,” she said. Last July, at a point where her life was a haze of drugs and she prayed to die, she got arrested again.

Because she’d been to Grace Centers of Hope while on probation, jail officials alerted her caseworker, who brought her to the centers’ residency program.
“Without that I’d probably still be out there,” she said. “If you were raised in an environment where you only see people hurting and going in and out of jail, that’s going to be what you live by.”

Chris Osborn, 32, had a similar experience. A year ago, he entered Grace Centers’ program in his latest effort to get sober, something he’s actively tried to do since 2018.

He mostly grew up in foster homes. Even after being adopted at 12, along with his brother, it took a long time for him to feel part of a family.

“They’re good people. They always looked out for my best interests, whether I wanted them to or not,” he said.

He started using alcohol and drugs at 14. His 20s were a mix of flophouses and jail cells. He went to Florida to get clean but landed in prison, the most traumatic time of his life, returning to Michigan at 27, still addicted but desperate to sober up.

Something in his childhood left him feeling that he would never grow old.

“I thought life would be fun for a while and something would eventually kill me,” he said. “I just never viewed myself as an old person.”

The birth of his two daughters is why Osborn started trying to get clean in 2018, but it’s been a long road.

Laws and Osborn credit Grace Centers of Hope in Pontiac for their ability to celebrate Christmas this year with clear eyes and hopeful hearts.
Pastor Kent Clark Grace Centers of Hope’s CEO, said by the time most people come to the centers for help, they’ve lost most of their lives to drugs and alcohol.

“Drugs are demons and they possess people and absolutely ruin their lives,” he said.

Grace Center of Hope uses faith as part of the recovery process.

“We see the most miraculous changes happen in people’s lives,” Clark said. “They become productive citizens. They get their lives back, their families back. They get back to their children and mates.”

Currently 100 men are living in Grace Centers of Hope men’s facility, with 56 in a year-long recovery program. The women’s shelter has 49 residents with 25 children. While the moms go to work or appointments, the children are in the center’s daycare program. Among the benefits for moms in recovery, Clark said are free diapers, wipes and formula.

Those who graduate from the program can move into a nearby house and stay for an additional two years of support, which Clark calls aftercare. He said the aftercare program has 117 adults and 28 children.

“You don’t get off drugs in three months,” he said. “It takes a while to get yourself disciplined and live in a neighborhood where you have friends close by.”
The homes Grace Center purchased around the main facility are dubbed Little Grace Village. The centers’ clients help renovate the houses. So far, 54 have been restored, with two more on the list to be fixed up.
Some of the houses are sold to clients who have achieved a life free of drugs or alcohol.

Clark said Grace Centers of Hope offers low-interest 10-year loans.

Pontiac resident Anita Laws, 54. Photo Crerdit: Grace Centers of Hope

Anita Laws is focused on simpler tasks for now. She’s learning to read and hopes to get her GED. She needed help to fill out government forms.

“Now, I have an ID. I have a Social Security number,” she said. “I don’t know the number by heart, but I can pull out the card.”

In November, she cast a ballot for the first time in her life.

“I’m a part of society and on the right track of being noticed more for that instead of by the police or people at the jail,” she said, comparing the experience to being born again.

“Don’t get me wrong. I get scared and when that happens, I pray to God harder to get stronger,” she said. “I’m still learning. I’m still growing. But now I know I’m worth God’s love. Nobody can tell me different.”

This Christmas, she expects to spend time with her family and enjoy time with her 13 grandchildren.

Osborn, for the first time in years, has earned supervised parenting time with his children. He feels alert and confident about visiting his family. He feels like the person he is on the inside matches the person he is on the outside, he said. Grace Centers helped him with gifts for his girls.

“I’ve reached a place of acceptance and a place of belonging,” he said. “I feel very, very, very grateful that I found this program when I did. Life is not over ‘til you take that last breath.”

Grace Centers made a difference by introducing him to God, Osborn said.

“That has honestly made all the difference in my long-term sobriety,” he said. “It’s been a path to hope, to being a good father and a good person.”