NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — When a mother is in treatment for a drug or alcohol addiction, it may mean they can't see their children on Mother's Day. A Nashville treatment center made sure the day was still memorable.
"We have women with all kinds of relationships with their own mothers and with their children," said Morgan Coyner of The Next Door. "We have mothers that lost custody of their children, women who have this quote unquote perfect life at home, but fell into addiction so their kids are at home missing their mom, and so we do all these different activities because we want to celebrate all moms."
The Next Door provided small bouquets and new shirts from Bee Attitudes for the clients. They also decorated the dining room and planned to serve two hardy meals at lunch and dinner.
"We are doing everything we can to tell these women we're going to support you if today is hard, great, [if] today is triggering and makes you want to scream... whatever you need we're going to do for you as long as it doesn't interfere with your treatment and recovery," Coyner said.
Coyner shared that she lost her mother to an opioid overdose in 2019.
"I know the tragic ending to so many of these stories, and so I look at the women here and they are doing the very thing that my mom couldn't do which is get help," she said.
She said many of the women struggle with not being with their families or able to talk to them on Mother's Day.
"They can't have their cellphones, laptops, any communication devices and they only get 10 minutes of phone time a week to talk to whoever it is they choose to call. What we've seen is it is a trigger... they talk to their kid and they're all of a sudden like I want to be with you," she said.
The Next Door team is constantly reassuring the women that they are in the right place for their families.
"It's an investment in yourself when you start recovery and with it being an investment in yourself it's also an investment in your family," she said.
The Next Door helped 1,655 women in 2019 and 1,439 in 2020. If not for COVID-19 capacity restriction, it's expected that last year could have been a record year.
