Phoenix House

Recovery facility a place of hope for those who have battled drug, other addictions

By Alicia Carmichael, acarmichael@bgdailynews.com — 270-783-3234

Monday, December 20, 2004

Deanna Gentry smoked her first joint and had her first taste of alcohol when she was only in seventh grade.

Since then, the 27-year-old has used and trafficked cocaine; and used, manufactured and sold methamphetamine.

Shes stolen, been fired, called in fake prescriptions, been jailed for hours, been beaten by a boyfriend, when both were drunk, shot up with shared needles and huffed gasoline when there was no other drug to be found.

Twice, Gentry has overdosed.

Often, she said, she has sold pills.

Shes bought land, a house and a Cadillac with cash she made from trafficking drugs.

Often, she cared for her children while high.

On Sept. 2, Gentry got busted. It was the second time she had been jailed.

We pulled in Hickory Ridge Apartments (in Hopkinsville), where we sold a lot of our stuff, and cops came out of nowhere and surrounded us, said Gentry, who was raised in an upper middle-class home and started using drugs not long after her family moved because her dad had died.

Now, Gentry of Hopkinsville is facing the possibility of going to jail again for five or eight years. She was indicted in October in Christian County. In March, shell find out if she can avoid jail by being sentenced to drug court.

Im hoping for the best, she said simply, her pink baseball cap pulled over her blonde hair.

Gentry, who got clean once and relapsed, was telling her story from Phoenix House, a transitional recovery home for women and their children in Bowling Green.

Through most of her troubles, Gentry was numb.

I didnt hurt. I didnt love. I didnt care, she said.

Thats before she began to recover this fall. She said she came to Phoenix House in November after she voluntarily entered detox in Owensboro and attended a 28-day program in Hopkinsville.

I feel better now, Gentry said Wednesday.

Now, shes holding down a job as a waitress, learning to be a good parent to her daughters, who live with her at Phoenix House, managing money and following rules.

At Phoenix House, a United Way umbrella agency, the goal is to help women stay clean while they learn to contribute to society in a positive way, said Phoenix House Director Felecia Peacock.

The Phoenix House program is multi-dimensional, focusing on the womens emotional, physical, mental and vocational needs.

To that end, the program requires the women to attend Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings six times a week in the beginning. It requires them to hold down a job, or volunteer if theyre disabled. It requires them to help clean and care for Phoenix House. Other rules, random drug tests, educational classes and strict curfews are all designed to help the women become responsible.

But there is a lighter side to Phoenix House, where the women are taught to have fun without drugs. They bowl, play volleyball, have cookouts and parties, go to conventions and attend retreats Sometimes, its one big slumber party, said Michele Ward, a 31-year-old wife and mother of two who is recovering at Phoenix House from abusing pain killers.

Ward has been at Phoenix House for four months.

She started abusing pills at 27 and once was taking 50 pills a day.

I had 70 prescriptions filled in four months, she said.

Ward said shed do anything to get pills. She pretended to have ailments so doctors would prescribe Loratab for her. She forged checks to pay for pills she thought she had to have or shed die.

Id call and say I was a nurse for somebody and needed to call in a prescription, she said. Ive seen a name on a bottle and pretended I was them so I could get their pills.

Ward has been to jail many times. Once facing a 10-year prison sentence for forging checks, she was released from jail after serving only 10 months of her sentence because her brothers, a Realtor and a doctor, asked a judge in Cadiz to release her to them so they could have a good influence on her.

For a while, on probation, Ward remained clean.

But after she moved out of a brothers house, she went back to conning and using drugs.

I decided I was going to go doctor shopping, she said.

When Wards brothers found out, they turned her in. She was jailed for prescription fraud and faced the possibility of going to jail for 11 years.

At first, Ward said, she was mad at her brothers.

I was like, Why is everybody in my business?

Now, after spending four months at Phoenix House, she understands why her brothers turned her in. But shes hurt that they will not see her now.

They love me and theyre tired of hearing me say, Im sorry. I wont take any more pills, she said. They heard mom say that for 30 years, and she drank herself to death.

Ward, who was court-ordered to treatment, has a lot to lose if she doesnt stay clean. She could go back to jail for 11 years. She could miss out on seeing her boys grow up.

I can live with out em, she said of the pain pills.

Peacock listened to her story.

She can relate to Ward, Gentry and the other women who live at Phoenix House because shes recovering herself.

I was most definitely an addict, she said.

At 11, Peacock started drinking moonshine in her native Logan County. Through the years, she abused all kinds of drugs, although methamphetamine was her favorite.

Peacock got sober four years ago, after being arrested on drug charges in 1999 and going through treatment and Warren County Drug Court.

I know what its like to be a person whod rather get high and go to jail and be away from your kids than to stop getting high, said the wife and mother of two boys.

So she tries to do as much as she can to support the women at Phoenix House.

You have to have a big heart, she said. But you also have to have broad shoulders.

Sometimes a woman will have to leave Phoenix House because shes gotten drunk or high.

It breaks your heart when you know down in your heart that theyre not ready and have to go back out there, Peacock said.

But she never fails to tell them she hopes they come back to find a drug- or alcohol-free life.

I never want anyone else to have to have that feeling that they cant overcome addiction, Peacock said.

For more information about Phoenix House, call 796-1764.  Daily News ·813 College St. ·PO Box 90012 ·Bowling Green, KY ·42102 ·270-781-1700