At the end of her rope, Lynn felt sure she’d never find a home—or hope—again, until she received help at Nashville Rescue Mission because of friends like you. “I stay grateful. It’s a really great thing to live in this community, learn, and help people,” she says.

“My father was an alcoholic,” Lynn shares. “It was every weekend,” and she remembers how the fear of it never left her. “Around Wednesday in school, I’d start wondering how the weekend was going to be.”

She recalls that “on Fridays, sometimes he didn’t come home,” but when he was there and drunk, “it was all weekend—then Mondays were bad because we all had to be quiet while he slept, afraid to wake him up.”

That’s how she spent her childhood: worried, fearful, “every weekend,” Lynn says, only to find herself following the same rocky path as an adult.

“I didn’t start drinking until almost 27 years old. But I was a ‘weekender’ too —I turned into that,” she says.

“It just got out of hand and I couldn’t stop it. I tried . . . ” Lynn says.

Despite falling deeper and deeper into alcoholism, Lynn was still able to function: “I was really good at it,” she says. “I always worked. It didn’t get really bad until the end.”

But those years of addiction also took away what family support she still had. “I lost my mom,” Lynn says, and she only had “two sisters left: I’m one of five.”

Then the day came when “I lost everything,” she says. “It was horrible—I was miserable.” Yet still, “when I drank enough, I didn’t have to think. I didn’t have to feel.”

That was when God began His plan of rescue that led Lynn to find a home here—and hope again. She almost didn’t make it. “I needed medical help,” she recalls the life-or-death moment: “I remember my phone being in my hand. I couldn’t even see,” she says.

“So this is God: first, waking me up, then I’m talking to two friends when I couldn’t even dial the phone. Then, I’m at my front door, and I must have been crawling because I was still on the floor, letting them in. They drove me to Vanderbilt, and I couldn’t even sign my name.”

Lynn says, “I had acute pancreatitis. I was hooked up to everything and was about half dead.” So as the hospital pulled her back from the brink, she realized if she didn’t turn her life around, she would lose it.

“I started calling. Nobody had a bed. I started dialing outside the area—Memphis, Knoxville,” she says. “I still couldn’t get anybody to give me a bed and let me in.”

Then she remembered, “I knew the director here” —at Nashville Rescue Mission.

“I called,” Lynn says, and will never forget the life-changing moment. “She said, ‘I have a bed: be here on Monday.’ It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my adult life—aside from losing my family—walking in that door at 59½ years old.”

“It was scary: I had a lot of shame. I cried for four days and nights, so the staff was worried about me, but they let me walk the halls,” she says.

“There was a wooden piece of art on the wall down the women’s hallway. I’d walk by and touch it—it just said ‘Jesus’ and it said ‘hope.’”

“There was power in that,” Lynn says, and that hope she found in Christ turned her life around—for good.

“He just lifted me up. I accepted where I was, and I told myself I’m going to do whatever they ask me!” Lynn says, and soon she discovered, “I loved it!”

Lynn not only found her life transformed in Jesus, but she’s dedicated it to serving others like herself here at the Mission. “It worked out well for me,” Lynn says. “A wonderful period in my life. It’s something I draw on today: that’s why I’m here!”

“I have personal victory now over my problems because I spend a lot of time personally with God: I just got to walk the walk,” she says.

I see myself—and every step of my recovery—in this job every single day.

“Today, my faith, recovery, peace, and joy are not negotiable—and are a direct result of this, starting with the Women’s Life Recovery Program,” Lynn says gratefully. “I got sober because I wanted a better life, and I stay sober because I have one: He gave it to me!”

True life transformation like Lynn’s is only possible through God and support like yours, providing hurting neighbors a home—and hope—at Nashville Rescue Mission!