Far too often, when an addict gets attention in the community, it’s usually because of something bad, Charlie Harding noted Tuesday.
“This time, we get to talk about success stories,” Harding said.
Harding serves as the house manager and peer mentor with the Southeast Kansas Recovery House, which opened its doors in Iola in the spring of 2022.
Since then, the Recovery House has provided a home for 14 residents all fighting the throes of addiction in one way or another.
With that as the backdrop, Harding and April Jackson, rural health coordinator at Thrive Allen County, hosted a celebration dinner Tuesday evening at the Recovery House in the old Waugh-Yokum & Friskel funeral home, where a host of current and former occupants shared stories about their recovery.
“A house like this is very special to me because it was something that was so beneficial and impactful in my life,” Harding explained, noting his road to sobriety followed a similar path.
“I stayed at a place very similar to this, and I wouldn’t be where I am today or who I am today without it,” Harding said. “I wouldn’t have my beautiful family, and my wonderful wife and they are very understanding. Because addiction doesn’t clock in and out and it doesn’t take weekends off. It doesn’t have holidays. It is all day long, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
The Recovery House offers safe space for addicts working their way back into society.
“So I walk alongside all of the residents and help them try to navigate this new life because life and recovery is hard,” Harding said.
For some it’s as simple as learning basic life skills like making appointments, getting up on time for work, even paying bills.
“Doing all the things ‘normies’ take for granted,” Harding said, with an integrity that often does not come naturally to an addict.
AMONG THE former residents who spoke was Chris Slater, who received a certificate of achievement for his work during Tuesday’s celebration.
“I don’t know where I’d be today,” said Slater, who is working two jobs, and receives treatment from the Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center, and is now getting back in touch with his daughter, from whom he relinquished his parental rights.
“I owe everything to this house,” Slater said.
Some of the most powerful comments came from Steve Carnahan, recalling the day he started treatment in April 2022: the same day he lost his home.
“My worst day sober is better than my best day as a user,” he declared. “I mean, there’s no way that I would even consider going back to that way of life.”
