Using ice helped mask the pain – but my health and life quickly unravelled. I spent almost three years in jail for dealing drugs
- ‘I fell asleep at the wheel’: my life changed the day my partner died
- ‘A mass imprisonment crisis’: why more women are doing time
I married my husband in my early 20s, had two beautiful children: a girl and a boy. I was the luckiest woman alive. I thought I was blessed.
My son died at age 19. It devastated us. What had been a very close family began to unravel. My husband was diagnosed with cancer soon after and for the next few years we battled. After being told he did not have long, he began to take drugs. I joined him not long after. He passed away in my arms in 2011. My daughter had moved in with her boyfriend and was trying to build a life for herself, so I found myself alone, vulnerable and not coping very well.