Jill is the friend who goes to the store when you need something. “It’s a good feeling to help out someone,” she says.
Being there for others comes naturally to her. Finding people she can trust and a place to belong has been harder. “I’ve never fit in,” she says. Meeting new people still makes her anxious.
Two friends and bingo
Jill signed up as a Maybelle Center Member three years before she ever came inside. Then two Members, Leila and Rodney, met her on the sidewalk and kept inviting her to Friday bingo.
She walked in nervous. “And then it was like nothing,” Jill says. “Everybody knew my name in two minutes.”
Building trust, one Thursday at a time
Trust came from small things. “I put my bag there, and nobody will touch it,” Jill says. “That’s something big here.” She can also open up to staff and other Members. “It’s just nice to know that I can talk to anybody here about anything,” she says. On Thursday movie days, she loves “just being together with people that I can trust.”
Jill knows what she needs. When her anxiety rises, she steps outside, calms down, and comes back in. For her, it’s worth it. “I finally found someplace since high school that I fit into,” she says, “and this is where I fit in.”
Connection and recovery
Jill and Donika are both in recovery. Jill has more than a year. Donika marked three years in October.
For Jill, recovery and belonging are linked. “I’ve never fit in. That’s why I did drugs a lot,” she says. “And now that I have this place, I don’t need to do drugs because I can come talk to anyone.”
Donika sees it the same way:
“Connection is the opposite of addiction. When you feel connected, you don’t really feel like you need addiction.”
Staff help along the way. When Jill last moved, Siggy, our Member Support Coordinator, helped her through it. Staff even found her plates and silverware. Jill hopes that kind of help reaches everyone. “Everybody has to share,” she says.
A voice in how things work
Jill also helps shape the community. She noticed bingo prizes often included candles, which many Members can’t light at home. She spoke up. The next prize was a diffuser.
“They take our suggestions, and they immediately implement them,” Donika says. “It makes us feel very important.”
Family, in every sense
Donika is now a Member too, and she cares for her mom at home. The two don’t always see eye to eye. Asked about her favorite activity at Maybelle Center, Jill says, “I like the mocha coffee.”
“That’s not an activity,” Donika says.
“I know,” Jill says.
But they’ve kept one rule since Donika was born: every night ends with ‘I love you.’ “It relieves a lot of madness,” Jill says, “when you say, I’m sorry, and I love you.”
Donika has found her place here, too. She signed up for the Member Talent Show and has taught student visitors to play Magic: The Gathering.
A place for others, too
Jill hopes more people find what she has here.
“This is what people need,” she says. “Programs that you can walk into and not be judged, shamed, or discarded.”
Her advice for anyone still standing outside the door? “Take the plunge, because this is like a family.” Here, she says, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from. “It matters that we’re here together.”
Behind every open door and every familiar face is a donor who made it possible. Thank you for helping build a place where Jill and Donika belong.
