Client Stories

Edward and Kerri

Love & Survival: A True Story of New Life

Edward and Kerri met over twenty years ago, but they both remember it like it was yesterday.

They’d each had their share of hard times. Kerri was a mom raising two children on her own. Ed had just gotten out of a year in prison for drug-related charges. They met while Kerri was washing coffee pots for an AA meeting.

“I was going to marry her when I first met her,” Ed says with a smile. “I just knew it.” Kerri says when she first saw him, she could hardly remember her own name. After nine months of quiet courtship, they married on December 2, 1989.

They lost everything with astonishing speed. In just six months the house and all their possessions were gone…and Ed was headed for prison.

Gone Astray

Ed had a good job in the oil industry, and he worked hard. After a few years, they bought their first house together, and soon were living “the good life,” with all the material possessions that come with success.

And then Ed slipped. He allowed a friend who needed a place to stay with them…but the friend was an addict, and the temptation was too much. Then the problem spread to Kerri. Regretfully Ed explains, “We were always a team. I did drugs, she did drugs. It was terrible. I call it a train wreck.”

They lost everything with astonishing speed. In just six months the house and all their possessions were gone…and E was headed for prison.

The Slow Journey Back

“When I got out I had nowhere to go,” Ed says. Kerri had entered a rehabilitation program when he went to prison, and he didn’t know if they’d ever be together again. Ed arrived at Mission SOLANO exhausted and fighting liver cancer. He drove to the Mission, and his car broke down right in front of the door! Ed laughs when he thinks about it. “The Lord moves in mysterious ways.”

Meanwhile, Kerri had a stroke while Ed was in prison, and became blind. She’d moved into a community for people with disabilities and was bravely learning to function again.

This was a learning time for both of them. Ed soaked in everything he could from the staff and programs your gifts put in place at Mission SOLANO. “Everything just started falling into place in my life. What I learned from the Mission is you can change your life. I became pretty humble. The Mission helped me understand myself and opened my eyes to my life and what I’d done in the past. It helped me achieve my goals. If something doesn’t come the way I want it, it’s not in my time, it’s in God’s time.”

Ed had six months left on his parole when he and Kerri reconciled. “God saw that our hearts couldn’t be separated and He brought us back together,” she says. So at the end of his parole period, Ed went home to her!

“We’re survivors.”

Life can still be hard. Kerri has many health problems, including diabetes and a recent accident that left her with limited mobility. But Ed says firmly, “We’re survivors.” “Pain is inevitable,” Kerri adds, “but suffering is optional.” Through it all, they still see each other with those same admiring eyes that once met over the coffee pots!

You are a very real part of so many stories like this through your partnership with Mission SOLANO. Your support provides resources and emotional support that help people get through their personal crises. Thanks to you, dozens of men and women every year can say, “We’re survivors!”