Success Stories
Chester Conquest
Justin's Place graduate and Program Staff member
I was raised in Nashville, TN, part of a very dysfunctional alcoholic family. Age 12 was when I started drinking. By the time I was 16 or 17, I was doing drugs too. My mother was forced to take me out of school, and placed me in a foster home in Bowling Green, KY. By age 18 I was a full-blown alcoholic. I lost job after job, then fell into crime and ended up in jail several times. By age 21, I was a blackout drinker, in and out of treatment centers. I couldn't hold a job, couldn't stay out of jail. My life was a wreck. In 1999, I went on vacation to Ft. Myers with a girl I'd met in a treatment center. I didn't know she was married until her husband showed up and she left with him. There I was, stranded on the beach in Ft. Myers. This guy approached me and asked me if I'd ever heard of St. Matthew's House. Since I had no other options, I chose to walk from Ft. Myers Beach to St. Matthew's House. I had blisters. I was sunburned, dirty, and with not much hope, but I made it. I was so glad to be here. I felt the presence of God at St. Matthew's House. I was able to get work, get healthy and meet some real nice people. Then I left Naples, and fell back into my old life. This pattern continued for 10 years. Then in January 2010, while sitting in a jail cell, I decided that I was through playing games with this disease. The next month I came back to SMH and stopped working to enter the Justin's Place Recovery Program. I was baptized in August 2010 and successfully completed the program as a Peer Mentor in December 2010. My life today couldn't get much better. I am now on the program staff at SMH and working as maintenance man at the Justin's Place after-care housing. SMH gave me a life I never knew existed. I have real friends here. The Peer Mentorship has opened a whole new door to recovery for me. The most important thing I learned about being a Peer Mentor is finding out who I really am. SMH is here to help you, but you have to be willing to help yourself. I want to do the next right thing and help others when I can.