FanStory.com - Life After North Side Recoveryby Badger

After a few glitches, I found a Northside recovery and I thanked my higher power.
The property consists of half an acre on Plaza Avenue. Behind the main structure are five cottages that face Bowles Street, built by Bill and Patty Breen and set amidst a peaceful court with grass, trees, and a hammock.

At first I lived in the main structure, but when the Breens decided to sell and found a buyer I rented a room. When their sale fell through and knowing that I was reliable, they invited me to rent one of the back cottages, which had been my dream all along.

In May 2018 I moved into the cottage with roommates Curtis Brown and Michael Levy. Things went well for a while, until Michael was expelled, leaving only Curtis and me. Unfortunately, Curtis suffered from schizophrenia and, when someone slipped him a drug--maybe ecstasy-- which fried his brain, I was unable to handle babysitting and working at the same time. Eventually he was also expelled. His replacements, two men supposedly in recovery, regularly got high and didn't last too long.

Patty then placed her daughter, Christy, and her boyfriend Robert in the unit, which was challenging, because there was conflict between Christy and me. Even though her boyfriend sided with me, he was gone most of the time. I wrote the following account of an incident that occurred there on May 4,
2018, at 1630.

I was in my room and I heard my roommate Christy crying. Her being in distress, I went to her door and asked if she required any assistance or needed somebody to talk to or a hug. She proceeded do get up and go into a rage. she attacked me first by grabbing me around the neck and clawing at my chest and telling me to get out of her house. I went into my room and locked the door to escape her attack and she kicked the door in and grabbed me physically and pulled me out of my room and threw me into the kitchen floor, where upon she grabbed a broom and struck me with it. At this point in time in an attempt to defend myself, I deflected one of her blows if she fell to the ground. She had incredible strengrh!
I then called nine one one emergency and told them that my roommate was assaulting me. The police came and talked to Christy and me and the officer compli-mented me for remaining calm throughout the whole proceeding. During the discussion Christy's mother Patty offered to take her home for the evening to get her out of the scenario.She refused to go with her, or to go to the hospital, another option which was offered. As a results, she was a left to stay there, so I went next door and spend the night at my neighbors house not wanting to be in the house any more, or for any more confrontations to occur.
That evening as I was preparing to take a shower, I noticed six or more claw marks on my chest I took pictures which are in-cluded with this file. She has assaulted me on two more occasions since then, once on the 7th and once on the 14th. I called the police both times. After the second assault, the officers told her that she needed to go spend the night with her mother, but DID NOT FOLLOW THROUGH WITH ESCORTING her, and once again, she was free to return and torment me.

As a result of this trauma, my doctor's office one Community Health paid my rent for the rest of May and found me a room further up in Del Paso Heights. I now live in a two-bedroom house quite comfortably.

I now have great roommates. We all get along. Peter is a retired Sprint car driver and is knowledgeable in a number of areas, in-cludung mechanics. He and his wife are both about ten years older than I, which has made living there both challenging and rewarding.

Initially, we clashed, but our arguments ultimately made us closer. Peter now tells me regularly that he loves me and that he's glad I'm there. He has diabetes and other health problems, and Kathy has had a
couple of strokes and is pretty much bedridden. I do a lot of caretaking for
them, and since their Social Security has been cut, I use my resources for
groceries and their nicotine habit.
(I kicked the habit over a month ago)

It says in the good book that wherever you are you are to flourish and prosper and this is my opportunity to let my light shine so that I can be a positive influence wherever I Go. Sure I have my ups and downs, but throughout all of this, God has protected, guided, blessed, and cultivated me for His purpose.

I'm very thankful to the managers here as they have been very helpful with everything including giving me a bike when my bike got stolen and a guitar when my guitar got broken but that's material for another story.

May you continue to be blessed in your endeavors, and if you thankful for the blessings that you have. For being thankful is the first step toward being humble. And the good book says he who exalts himself shall be humbled and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.

Entered on this 30th day of March 2019 being of sound mind, and taking all of reality into consideration.