Ashley: Staying Sober in an Uncertain World

Ashley already started over once. Now, she’s doing it again. After battling addiction and getting clean, she found a job and started to put the pieces of her life back together a year and a half ago. She was working at a restaurant to support herself when COVID-19 hit and she was laid off. “I am really stressed out, you know--I don’t know how I am going to support myself going forward or what I am going to do. I have been homeless before, so that’s a real fear of mine,” she said. 

Ashley and her fiance live with his 77-year-old mother in Wisconsin. Ashley’s fiance is still working as a roofer, but his income isn’t enough to support the three of them. Ashley was able to receive unemployment, but it isn’t a long-term solution. “It did give me a little room to breathe, financially, but it’s not forever,” she said. 

Quarantine has been emotionally challenging as well as financially, especially because Ashley suffered a miscarriage just a few weeks ago. For now, Ashley has been staying busy with artwork and crafts that she has been trying to sell and focusing on her sobriety. “I am trying to remember that I don’t have to have everything figured out right now,” she said. 

The $500 emergency payment from SaverLife helped Ashley pay off credit card bills and contribute to some house expenses. “It really helped. It was just a little bit of hope, a little bit of light, a positive thing that I really needed at the time,” she said. 

Ashley is looking for a new job and hopes that she might be able to start a new career working in recovery or social services and use her own experience to help others. “I would like to find something helping people. I have been through some things, and so it’s easier for me to relate to people and talk to them about it,” she said.