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Ashley’s Miracle

With his brilliant clear blue eyes and his easy-going temperament, baby Ryan has a wonderful life. His environment is clean and quiet, he has healthy food to eat, and toys to play with. When he wakes from his nap, Ashley is right there to greet him, with, “Good morning buddy!” Ryan has the most important gift of all: a loving mother.

His Mom is Ashley, and motherhood is Ashley’s miracle.

Ashley, herself, is a miracle.

She is approaching one year of sobriety, and at the age of 35, with 17 years of substance use in her recent past, she has never been clean for this long before. Getting here was a tough road.

A Rochester native, Ashley recalls that around age 19, she began to use oxycodone. She then “blew lines” with her parents and grandparents, which led to smoking crack and trying heroin with her cousin. By age 22, she was using a needle, to inject “just about everything.” She was surrounded by drugs and by friends and family who used with her.

“I have a 17-year-old daughter,” Ashley says, “and I had lost custody of her when she was little; I was trying to regain custody, and would get clean, but then I would relapse. It was a cycle I sometimes could not imagine ever escaping.” During those dark years, she adds, “there were three years straight that I stood the street corner on Hudson and Upper Falls. I was supporting my mother’s habit and supporting my own. I was in a bad place.”

She blinks back tears as she continues: “I had very low self-esteem; it started as desperation and eventually became habit. My higher power was trying to show me all the different reasons I shouldn’t be doing the stuff I was doing … but for so long I ignored it. I stayed numb most of the time. And there are still things I haven’t worked through yet. I have to fight for my recovery every day.”

This is where the Villa came in.

“I initially got involved with the Villa around 2020, with not good intentions, I am sorry to say,” she admits. “My original intention was to secure a suboxone prescription, so that I could sell it, and continue my habit with harder drugs. But thankfully, things went in quite a different direction.”

Her therapist, Matthew “Woody” Woodring, opened a dialogue with her about sobriety, and she began to set goals. Suboxone – a medication administered in our Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) program, which relieves cravings and smooths the way for stopping the use of drugs such as crack or heroin – became Ashley’s go-to solution in her journey to recovery. Her first goal was to get back custody of her daughter (who is, today, 17, and lives with Ashley and little Ryan).

“When I first met Woody and I saw that picture of him on his door, I knew exactly where that intersection was where he was standing with the sign that said ‘homeless and hungry.’ I had done that a couple times, too. And I knew that if a guy could come from that spot and then be where he is today, then surely I could do it too. He was inspiration.”

(In the photo: friends and partners-in-recovery, part of Ashley’s support system. Seated: Ryan and Ashley, Tyler and Adam; standing: Anthony, Kevin, and Matthew “Woody” Woodring, who is the Medication Assisted Treatment Program (MAT) coordinator at our Jay Street location.)

As well as regular therapy sessions that he provided, Woody got her involved with AA. He never pushed her, he never judged her. He gave her praise for every small accomplishment. “He made my issues his own issues.”

She was especially grateful that he did not judge her when, early during her pregnancy with Ryan, Ashley relapsed. The experience was eye-opening, and is now what she describes as the absolute worst night of her life. She felt that her unborn son was talking to her, and saying, “What are you doing to me? You’re doing this again?”

With the Villa’s help, she doubled down on her resolve, became a MAT patient once again, taking suboxone to get clean, a very low dose due to her pregnancy. When Ryan was born, she had her miracle: a beautiful, healthy baby, born drug-free, who has achieved all of his developmental milestones.

Ashley is in recovery and now is approaching one year of sobriety. As proud as she is of her accomplishments, she is the first to praise Villa staff who have guided her journey. “Woody and the Villa not only had a hand in saving my life; they had two hands in saving my life.”

Miracles like Ryan and Ashley are possible with the dedication of Villa staff, but also with our partnership with donors like you. This season, please consider a gift to the Villa, to continue the legacy of miracles. We are proud of the accomplishments of our clients, and we are proud to know the Rochester community cares. CLICK HERE to make your gift today.

For more info, contact Isha Torres, 585-752-7735 or isha.torres@villaofhope.org