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 five 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 I 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, two major car accidents, a dental surgery, and an emergency hysterectomy, all in the span of seven months. The doctors gave me continuous opiate pain pills, so by 2005 I was fully addicted. In 2010, I traded pain pills for heroin. In 2012, I lost my career. In 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 three times and prison once. I'm not just a felon now, I'm a violent felon. I have been Narcaned back to life three times, and I have been shocked 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, 2020, my daughter dropped off a bag of clothes to the crack house I was living in, and in that bag was a shirt. That shirt had a saying on it: "I was gonna go running today but Proverbs 28:1 says, 'Only the wicked run when no one's chasing them.'" In that moment, everything changed for me. Because after 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 about where I would go from here. They started me out on their litter crew, going around to 43 different city parks, cleaning 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 save money to purchase a car for more independence. I continued with the litter crew for about six months, after which they encouraged me to go into our coffee roastery, Dignity Roasters, to learn about roasting coffee.
They put me through management and supervisor training, and then I became our roastery manager, taking care of all the roasting, processing, packaging, and delivery of our coffee. They helped me find a dentist so I could get my dentures. They also helped me find my home church, Neighborhood Church, and the founders of Wear Gloves, Ken and Wendy, along with my friend and co-worker Carlos, joined me when I got baptized. They encouraged and helped me repair the relationships with my family, and I can now say I not only have my children back in my life, but I also 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 $1,000 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. 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. I have come a long way in 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 handout” 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 stayed for the mission.