MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Brittany Matthews and Donald McDade Jr., who were among thousands across Memphis battling addiction but are now sober, are receiving support from the community to help them succeed.
Three years ago, Matthews was introduced to fentanyl.
"My mom had died and…I just drowned myself in it,” Matthews said. “Two years ago, I started doing crack. Ninety-five percent of my day was getting high.”
Matthews’ partner also battled addiction.
“My 21 years of addiction started off with pain killers, ended up with fentanyl,” McDade Jr. said. “It all starts off fun and games. You think you can deal with it. You always say you have it under the control…Life starts unfolding so quickly that it just catches you by surprise and you know you’re in over your head.”
Matthews and McDade have been together 22 years and have four children.
“We kind of hid it, but I could tell the older ones were trying to notice,” Matthews said.
She said it impacted her children’s behavior as well.
“It was a ring of kids, four of them, a 17-year-old, 15-year-old, 14-year-old, and a 12-year-old. My son was the 12-year-old who was stealing cars and carjacking,” Matthews said.
McDade said the kids go through a rollercoaster of events just like their parents, so “you can’t really put the blame" on them.
Later, Matthews woke up in a hospital after overdosing.
“It was indescribable," Matthews said. "All I could think about is what if when they Narcan me…if I didn’t come back. My kids and everything. They would have been so hurt,” Matthews said.
Both Matthews and McDade went to rehab together and are now 51 days sober.
“I always said, 'I want to go to treatment, but what are we going to do with the kids? Who is going to keep the kids?'” Matthews said.
Flanders Fields’ Ben and Jessica Owen, who both battled addiction and helps others, helped foster Matthews and McDade’s children and are fixing a home for them that was given by a relative.
“This is the price I pay to stay clean,” Ben Owen, Flanders Fields and We Fight Monsters founder, said. “This is a huge gap we’ve got in Shelby County. There’s nowhere for parents to go together to get better and there’s nowhere for kids to go while they get better.”
Ben said one way to address the problem is for government leaders to support organizations responding to the need.
“The second you start looking at what created the problem and start pointing fingers, that’s where progress stops," Ben said. "To be able to bring a community together and have everyone get behind one of these efforts, that’s the only way we’re going to get to see change."
The renovations to the house are completely free for Matthews and McDade. People from out of state also came to help.
“I’m so grateful because there was a chance that we could be dead and our kids could be with family because we chose to use drugs,” Matthews said.
The home will be complete over the next several weeks and ready for Matthews, McDade and their children to move in together.