You Can't Steal My Joy: Tammie
On a quiet Friday afternoon, the kitchen at the Women’s Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) of Seattle was filled with freshly baked cookies and hot coffee. Manning the oven was Tammie, beneficiary and head cook for the 20 women within the program. She’s been given the nickname “Mom,” but that does not mean the other beneficiaries are childish. “They’re not babies,” Tammie stressed. “They’re women. They’re strong women. Because you have to be strong to take that step to come through these doors.”
Tammie’s moment of strength came after a 40-year battle with drug and alcohol addiction. She describes her past self as stubborn and having an animosity towards authority. In retrospect, she spent most of her adult life betraying those close to her in order to obtain drugs.
Then one pivotal morning, she awoke on a stranger’s lawn. In that moment, isolated and depraved, she decided to reach out to her best friend for help. They worked to get Tammie into detox and finally into The Salvation Army’s ARC—a free, six-month rehabilitation program. Coming into the program, Tammie was “such an angry person.” But all it took was one heartfelt conversation with Jenni, the ARC’s resident manager at the time, to break down Tammie’s walls.
Jenni sat down, held Tammie’s hands, and said, “You’re right where you’re supposed to be. And we want you here, no matter how much you don’t think we do.” For Tammie, it changed everything to hear an authority figure say those words. The Salvation Army became a house of hope.
“I thought they were just bell ringers,” she said, “but they’re not. They’re life changers.”
No longer masking her true feelings with drugs, Tammie embraces The Salvation Army as “a safe place to go through struggles.” She has received physical, emotional, and spiritual care with case managers who have also gone through the rehabilitation process. She engaged in work therapy to develop discipline and employable skills. While she was the head cook at the time of the interview, she soon moved on to her next work assignment, which ensured that she would come out of the program with well-rounded experience.
Tammie graduated from her six-month rehabilitation program in January (following the time of the interview). Now, she’s opted to stay for Phase 2, an additional three-month transitional period for ARC graduates. This way, she can work towards employment and housing while still having the support of Salvation Army recovery services. In her words, this rehabilitation program has taken Tammie from “a 40-year-old addict, whose heart was just clogged with hate” to a woman whose joy cannot be stolen.
Tammie knows that there are hundreds of people just like her past self – too hard-headed, too deep into addiction, unable to ask for help. She asks that other addicts simply have “a mustard seed of faith.” In her case, she just needed one person to believe in her. For those without that support system, she assures them that they are worth it, even if they feel lost. “A lot of us saw a light at the end of the tunnel,” she explained of herself and others battling addiction, “and we thought it was a train. But it’s not. God’s at the end of that tunnel. But you got to walk through that darkness to get there. And it’s a scary walk.” Through the hardships that come with recovery, The Salvation Army is there to guide others and offer hope.
That Friday happened to be Tammie’s one-hundredth day sober. She said, “I’ve been sober for 100 days. I’m so excited to see what it will feel like to be sober 200 days, a year.” During her time with The Salvation Army, she’s learned that there is an unforeseen chapter ahead in her life. “This place made me realize that my future’s just starting right now, and I have a completely different calling. My path is now is for working for women like this. And I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t come here.”
Because of this passion, her hundredth day was just like any other at the house: laying out cooking in the dining room corner, preparing a warm meal for the women. When asked how this felt about being in the ARC program, she beamed. “It’s crazy, but it’s the craziest joy. It’s love."
The Salvation Army's Adult Rehabilitation Center is a six-month, residential program offered at no cost to participants. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you can find help here.