Second chance
Greene County mom rebuilding life after battle with addiction
After an afternoon spent swimming in the hot early summer sun, Savannah Greene waited with her daughter beneath a pavilion in Mon View Park for their ride.
“I spent most of my summers down here,” said Greene, 27. “We used to go to day camp. The Fourth of July, they do a big thing. I had family reunions. We were here a lot.”
Now, Greene is recreating those hot summer days of her youth for her daughter, Veyda, her mini-me.
“You can tell she’s my kid,” Greene laughed. “She loves going to the park, and she loves – we have a Slip ‘n Slide at the house. She loves the water, she loves being outside.”
Time with her 3-year-old is her favorite; motherhood, Greene’s purpose. But this day, a day out, just mama and her little, is special, a memory hard-earned. Because motherhood isn’t just what saved Greene, and this summer is not just any summer. This is Savannah Greene’s second act.
“This,” Greene said, hands resting gently against her stomach, which hinted at life forming within, “is my chance.”
Greene’s childhood was a relatively happy one. She recalled fondly time at the park in Greensboro, remembered swimming in the river with her two younger siblings and their childhood friends, recounted with a smile the family’s one vacation – to Myrtle Beach when she was in her early teens. During her senior year at Mapletown Junior/Senior High School, Greene’s parents divorced.
Her father was a coal miner. Her mother, “a superhero, honest to goodness,” registered nurse who works in the pediatric intensive care unit.
Two-and-a-half years ago, Greene’s father died. As a woman navigating new motherhood – a role she liked but hadn’t planned to take on, not then – struck with the grief of her father’s unexpected passing, Greene began self-medicating.
“That kind of hit me hard. I was already kind of with a bad crowd, and partying,” said Greene. “Whenever I needed that numb, or needed to get out of my head, that’s the first thing you run to.”
Slowly, Greene retreated into herself.
“It was really controlling. It will take you over in seconds, and days become weeks and weeks become months and you realize that you’ve lost so much time. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor. It can hit anybody,” Greene said, “and it hits hard.”
Greene missed one month of motherhood, and then two, and then she began missing entire seasons of her toddler’s life. She missed her daughter’s first day of school. While in the throes of addiction, Greene’s mother took care of Veyda.
Late last year, Greene suffered an ectopic pregnancy, which exacerbated her addiction. Shortly thereafter, she found herself at rock bottom.
“I went to jail,” Greene said, “and found out that I was pregnant again. This is a sign. You need to get your life together. You need to get it back. You are losing who you are. Because I was a great mom, and then, all the grief, all the things you hold in.”
Greene entered an in-patient rehabilitation program. She has been sober since March, slowly crawling out of the fog that was active addiction.
“I didn’t realize how much damage I was doing on the outside. I just thought I was damaging myself,” she said. “If I wouldn’t have gotten into rehab, I don’t know if I would have gotten another chance of motherhood. I’m getting blessed with another baby. I don’t know if I wouldn’ve even have gotten another chance of being (Veyda’s) mom,” Greene said.
A second chance is something Greene believes everyone who struggles with addiction deserves. There’s a stigma, she said, surrounding addiction, that addicts are weak, or weak-minded, but “one time, and it’s all it takes, especially whenever you feel the way you do,” she said.
She encourages anyone struggling with dark feelings to reach out.
“I didn’t. I let it take over,” Greene said.
Now, she is building her life from ground zero. Greene said she lost most of her friends during active addiction, and she is working to regain the trust of her family members and rebuild her relationship with her daughter while preparing to welcome a second child into this world.
“Every day is a long day,” she smiled.
Long, but worth it.
“Before, I was hiding. I hid from her, I hid from my mom, I hid from my family. I was hiding places that I should not have been hiding. It got me in trouble. Starting my life over,” Greene said, “was the best thing that could have happened to me.”