Once considered a pillar of society, Melisa was a Girl Scout Service Unit Leader in a Connecticut community.

“I had cars and a house in Lebanon,” Melisa, 49, matter-of-factly said late last year at Hope House, a recovery home for addicts in Groton.

She was also planning on running for a seat on the board of education.

Then her husband of 13 years, Bob, died in 2009 of a heart attack two days after having knee surgery and she relapsed when she was 40. After being arrested four times for driving under the influence, she was sentenced to 14 months at York Correctional Institution in Niantic.

Melisa credits Bob for “basically picking” her up off the street when she was 24. Her downward spiral began when she was left unsupervised at 10 years old. While her mother worked as a bartender, she began drinking at home, which eventually led to getting into fights, smoking crack cocaine with friends at 15, “running the roads,” being pulled out unconscious from under a car at 20, and going to jail.

“I was sober for 13 years,” she said. “Bob helped me get my first two daughters back from previous relationships.”

After marrying, they had two more daughters.

“Many people think that an addict is someone on the side of the street with a needle sticking out of their arm, that they don’t work, so they’re worthless and not worth helping,” said Annette Eldridge, executive director of Community of Hope, which operates Hope House in Groton.

Upon her release five years ago, Melisa was placed at Community of Hope, where she stayed for two years. In addition to being a resident, she served as an ambassador for the other women and monitored them when staff members weren’t there.

With her life back on track, Melisa met and married her second husband, Alfred, who died one year later of cancer in 2017. Soon afterwards, she went off her bipolar medication and started drinking weekly. In November 2018, she came back to Hope House as a resident, and one month later, became an ambassador again.

“They saved my life by giving me a safe place to live. They gave me my dignity back, my self-respect, my faith in God, and I learned to love myself. I don’t know where I would be without this place… The women I serve here give me purpose.”

Melisa continues to thrive at Hope House, while also working 50 hours weekly.

Former resident Rachael, 49, said she feels she “turned a corner” for the first time in her life while at Community of Hope, because the staff cares “about the person, not just the paycheck…” Rachael has also spent time in prison and mental hospitals. She began using codeine-cough syrup at 7 years old after witnessing “horrific” domestic violence. Eventually, she would be diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Once she began using opiates, crack cocaine and heroin at 14, she left home, dropped out of school and started dating older men.

“I stand firm on the spirituality part (of the program),” Rachael said. “You have to have the God piece to complete your recovery.”

Rachael left Hope House in November 2019 to open a sober, 9-bedroom home in Groton with a business partner. She has also become a certified recovery coach.

Community of Hope was created after a group of friends observed that many people who were struggling with addiction at their church’s recovery home for men kept “going around and around in a system, but weren’t “really becoming free,” Eldridge said, adding that they knew these recovery addicts needed to get out of their normal surroundings and live away from the area where they used drugs. The church also wanted to help women.

After Community of Hope received its nonprofit status in 2006, the hands-on, volunteer board of directors started its fundraising campaign. By March 2011, the non-denominational, faith-based organization raised enough money to purchase a house and huge barn with two mortgages. In November of that same year, the first women moved in. Since its inception, about 300 women have lived at Hope House.

“The women do pay rent or seek funding that assists in the payment of their rent that goes toward the expenses of the house. It’s not a handout,” Eldridge said. “The women are required to get jobs by the end of the first month and to enter counseling outside of Hope House.”

As of now, they have one remaining mortgage and many necessary repairs and updates that need to be made to the driveway, barn, and house. The barn is a key component to recovery addicts at Hope House and in the community. When residents are ready to go out on their own, they can go to the barn and take whatever they need – everything from dishes to furniture.

The problem is the barn’s roof is leaking and some items, including furniture, are getting moldy.

The organization is running a campaign to raise $700,000 to $1 million.

In addition to paying off their current mortgage and making repairs on Hope House and the barn, Eldridge said Community of Hope’s goal is to acquire a second house or apartment building to help even more recovering addicts.

For more information about Community of Hope and Hope House, visit www.4coh.com, or call (860) 912-8983. Checks can be made payable to “Community of Hope” and mailed to 1649 Route 12, Suite 2, Gales Ferry, CT 06335.

Kindness in Real Life is a regular feature in The Times. To contribute, email times@theday.com.