Today, I was fortunate to meet someone who has left an impression and showed me the true meaning of optimism and faith. I didn’t receive the initial phone call, but when I found a note on desk for a story idea, I called back and was a little hesitant to the interview I agreed to. I knew very little about this person, I knew she was a drug addict, lost her husband and now her life has forever changed. I wanted to know more, and the interview could have gone a million different ways, but today I felt fortunate I said yes to this story.
She walked in and we went to back room so I could interview her, and the first thing she said to me was that she loved my outfit. Immediately, I could tell she was a kind person and also very nervous, but we once we sat down she opened up and told me her traumatic story. She had a history with drug abuse and when she and her husband experimented with heroin for the first time, she has no recollection of the night. She woke up in a hospital three weeks later to find out that her husband had died, she missed his funeral and their heroin was mixed with lethal amounts of meth, cocaine, rat poisoning and paint thinner. Suddenly, my “problems” felt minuscule and vain.