Teddy Barrett is a lean, muscular man in his 40s, with a shaved head and a metal stud over one eye. He has L-O-V-E tattooed on the fingers of one hand, and H-A-T-E on the other. He looks like someone you wouldn’t want to mess with— except that he’s crying, and the tears keep coming.

Next to Teddy in a chair sits his four-year-old son, Justin, a towheaded boy with the face of an angel.

When Teddy first came to Open Door Mission in 2001 at the insistence of his girlfriend, he was a hardened alcoholic and addict. “I was violent, angry,” he says. “I’d had trouble with the cops. I didn’t care about my life.”

It’s no mystery how Teddy got to that point. Born to alcoholic parents, his childhood was filled with fear. Teddy’s father beat him, as well as his mother and siblings. To survive, Teddy buried his emotions and developed a hard shell.

At 15, Teddy quit school and left home. He became a drummer and began a fast life of playing in bars, selling drugs and using women. A few years later, he met a girl and they had four boys. During their 18 years together, Teddy became an alcoholic and methamphetamine addict.

“I’d do drugs all night and come home to watch the kids while my girlfriend went to work. It was crazy. Then one day, she took the kids and left.”

Later, Teddy met another woman. “I thought she’d help me out,” he says, “but she just got strung out too. For years we doped and ran together. We had Justin. Then she got in trouble. She went to Open Door Mission for help.”

She talked Teddy into joining the New Life Recovery programs with her. At Open Door Mission, they got counseling, anger management classes, and family services. “It helped me a lot. It also gave me God. I’d never even opened a Bible before. And I started going to church.”

Teddy was happy for the first time in his life. He and his girlfriend married. In January of
2001, they graduated from the New Life Recovery programs and ‘left the Mission to try life on their own. But Teddy’s trials were far from over.

His wife started doing drugs again, and left him. Teddy was devastated. Now, a year later, the tears flow freely as he talks about her. Despite his pain, Teddy’s resolve to stay clean is strong. Sobriety is a gift from God he’s not willing to give up. It has allowed him to get healthy and be a good father to Justin.

“My son keeps me going. And I’m thankful for the Mission. If it wasn’t for the people here, guys like me would have a rope around their necks already.”

Teddy still hopes his wife will return and get help at the Mission. Meanwhile, when he feels lost or down, he finds comfort in these words from Psalm 23: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

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