Meet Melissa
Written by Melissa Abney
“The wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion”. – Proverbs 28:1
If you would have met me 5 years ago, you would have met a violent homeless drug addict living in a crack house. But that's not how my life started. I bought my first house when I was 18, I was a licensed auto insurance agent, and did medical billing part time. I had a husband, a dog, a cat, a son, a daughter, and the literal white picket fence.
In 2004 I had a c-section, 2 major car accidents, a dental surgery, and an emergency hysterectomy all in the span of 7 months. The doctors gave me continuous opiate pain pills so by 2005 I was fully addicted. In 2010 I traded pain pills for heroin, 2012 I lost my career, 2013 I lost my husband, children, and home. In 2014 I lost my freedom.
During my 15 years of addiction I've lived on and off the streets here in Ocala. I've been to 12 different rehabs. I've been to jail 3 times and prison once. I'm not just a felon, I'm a violent felon. I have been administered life-saving Narcan 3 times and I have been defibrillated once to restart my heart. To say that I was on the verge of death with my choices in life, would be an understatement.
On September 27th of 2020, my daughter dropped off a bag of clothes to the crack house I was living at and in that bag was a shirt. That shirt had a saying on it which said. "I was gonna go running today. But proverbs, 28:1 says only the wicked run when no one's chasing them". At that moment everything changed for me. Because every disagreement, every argument I'd go back running to my addiction. It was time to stop running.
I called the Ocala police department and through the amnesty program I went into a 72 hour detox program at the centers of Ocala. When I came out, I went to interfaith for help and they pointed me to Wear Gloves. When I found Wear Gloves they didn't care about my past they cared where I would go from there.
They started me out on their litter crew going around to 43 different city parks cleaning the grounds and changing trash cans. They encouraged me to get my driver's license back, which I lost due to drug induced seizures, and then asked me to become their primary driver for the litter crew. Wear Gloves helped me to save money to purchase a car for some more independence.
I continued with the litter crew for about 6 months. After which they encourage me to go into our coffee roastery, Dignity Roasters, to learn about roasting coffee. They put me through management and supervisor training. Then I became our roastery manager taking care of all the roasting, processing, packaging, and delivery of our coffee. They helped me to find a dentist so I was able to get my dentures, so I can smile brightly today. They also helped me to find my home church, Ken and Wendy, the founders of Wear Gloves, also joined me when I got baptized.
They've encouraged and helped me to repair the relationships with my family. I can now say I not only have my children back in my life, but I have grandchildren in my life. I was always the last one anyone could ever depend on, for anything. Now I'm the first one everyone calls. Last year my daughter purchased her first home. She was about a $1000 short on her down payment. And I was able to give that to her without a second thought. If they need to be picked up from the airport. I'm the one they call and that means more to me than anything else.
I moved out of the roastery and went on to do speaking engagements which I never thought I would do. As of last July I became the program manager of our newest project, our Dignity House shelter. I have come a long way with turning my entire life around and it couldn't have happened without the amnesty program, the Centers detox program, but especially and most importantly, Wear Gloves. Wear Gloves believed in me when I no longer believed in myself. They truly believe in the "Hand up not a hand out" and "Dignity not dependency" mission. I now want to be for others what they were and still are for me today.
I came for a job, but I stayed for the mission.