FAIRENDO’S STORY
WHEN FAIRENDO CAME TO RAYS OF SONSHINE IN 2014, SHE had just given birth to her son, a beautiful baby boy who tested positive for crack cocaine. Addicted, Fairendo had been using drugs during her pregnancy. It took the presence of crack cocaine in her child’s bloodstream and the fear of losing him to motivate her to seek recovery from addiction. Hospital staff reported the test results to the state Child Protective Services agency and the child was removed from her care. Rather than place the child in a foster home, CPS allowed him to live with Fairendo’s older sister. “That was a blessing,” Fairendo says, recognizing that her son could have ended up in foster care and her parental rights terminated. Fairendo says she always had family support growing up, especially from her mother. Her parents provided well for her and her brothers and sisters. They were strict, and good grades were expected. After high school, she attended a vocational program and became a
LINDA’S STORY LIKE SO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE IN their teens and early twenties, Linda experimented with drugs and alcohol in her younger years. As she got older, she used drugs recreationally from time to time, but 134 JULY 2019 | WWW.BAYOULIFEMAG.COM
Certified Nursing Assistant. She got a job as a CNA at a nursing home and worked part time while taking nursing classes at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. During her first year at ULM, Fairendo lived at home with her parents. But she was partying a lot with her friends, drinking and hanging out with what she describes as the “wrong crowd.” Her grades dropped and she eventually quit school, disappointing her parents who expected her to get a college degree. Although Fairendo was exposed to drugs at an early age and even sold marijuana as a teenager, she didn’t begin using crack cocaine until she was almost 27 years old. During the time she was at ULM, drugs were constantly a part of her life. Her boyfriend and some of her friends were using, and after she quit school she became actively involved in selling crack cocaine. “I learned how to sell it, how to cook it and process it and cut it up,” Fairendo recalls. For years she sold but didn’t use the drug. Eventually, though, she tried it and quickly became addicted. Fairendo was arrested several times, for offenses ranging from misdemeanor theft to drug possession. She spent time in jail and even a brief time in a treatment facility, but had no desire to quit using. It took her mother’s death and the realization that she had passed her toxic drug use on to her newborn son to make her change course. Her son was less than a month old when Fairendo came to Rays of Sonshine. She spent 9 months in the treatment program. Every week, she wrote postcards to her son that he could read someday and know that she was thinking of him. After completing the initial phase of the program, she was allowed to have overnight visits with her son in her sister’s home. She made good use of her time at Rays of Sonshine, working her recovery program and also training for jobs so that she could support herself and her son when she got out. “I had two jobs waiting when I got out of here,” Fairendo recalls. “At Rays, I trained to be a behaviorial instructor with COA, working with children of addicts while their mothers were in class.” She kept that job for a year, leaving when she was pregnant with her second child, a daughter who is now three years old. In the three years since her daughter was born, Fairendo has continued working and gone back to school. She attended Louisiana Delta Community College where she was on the Dean’s List her first semester and the Chancellor’s List every semester after that. She recently graduated with a degree in Business and Technology. Today, she is employed as the Permanent Housing Manager at Rays of Sonshine, and runs Sincerely Mo Cleaning, her own residential and commercial cleaning service. Fairendo marks her years of sobriety by her son’s birthdays. He is five years old, and she is five years sober. Thanks to Rays of Sonshine, she is a loving mom whose life is fulfilling, productive and drug free.
she always held a job, took care of her family and led a productive life. She says her struggle with addiction began with pain medication prescribed for her after surgery. In the midst of a contentious divorce and custody battle, Linda’s abuse of opioid pain medication escalated as she tried to cope with increasing stress. She became involved in an unhealthy relationship with someone who was a drug user, and soon she was abusing other substances in addition to pain pills. Eventually, Linda’s family stepped in. Her mother actually collaborated with her
ex-husband, and together they took action through the court to force Linda to get help for the sake of her child. Rather than risk losing her son, Linda agreed to enter the treatment program at Rays of Sonshine. “I realize now that it was a ploy to make me get help,” she says. “I moved quickly through the program, more quickly than most do.” Linda says. After her entry level treatment was complete, she moved into transitional housing, where she had more independence. Her son, who had been staying with her mother, came to