Everything changed for Jacki Stock at 13 when her dad died, then changed again last Thanksgiving
Credit to Author: Gordon McIntyre| Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2019 22:28:41 +0000
Life was a beach for Jacki Stock growing up in Port Moody.
Happy days filled with trips to Buntzen Lake, surrounded by loving family members.
Then at 13, six months after her parents split, she lost her dad, who she’d been living with.
“Things were great for me and then, bang, he had a heart attack and died,” Stock, now 47 and clean and sober for over a year, said on Thanksgiving Day. “Drugs were an escape.”
She was volunteering at the Union Gospel Mission’s annual Thanksgiving meal on Monday, giving back to an organization that gave her so much.
The yearly dinner attracts so many people offering to volunteer that dozens have to be turned away.
It takes five days to get everything ready: The turkeys are carved and stuffing prepared a couple of days ahead. Eight chefs over two shifts are on it, plus making the 750 meals a day the Mission normally prepares.
“Volunteering is more rewarding for us in a way, it’s an opportunity to dialogue and take care of each other,” said Brenda Ng, a UGM Thanksgiving- and Christmas-dinner volunteer for more than 10 years.
Brenda Ng delivers food to tables during Thanksgiving dinner at Union Gospel Mission.
“In today’s world, we should all be supportive of each other. This is a way for me to give back.
The line to get in stretched from the giant pit across the lane where UGM’s new, expanded Women’s Sanctuary will be, past the old East Side Spokes building on Hastings.
Inside, about 3,000 dinners are prepared, supplied by 130 turkeys, 800 pounds each of mashed potatoes and stuffing, 700 pounds of vegetables, 260 litres of cranberry sauce, 300 litres of gravy, 600 pumpkin pies and 400 litres of ice cream.
Lineups are outside and around the corner in the lane for Thanksgiving dinner at Union Gospel Mission.
The Union Gospel Mission may have saved her life, Jacki Stock believes, and she has so much she’d like to give back.
“I’d lost all hope,” the mother of two, a 29-year-old daughter and 27-year-old son, said.
She was living under the Patterson SkyTrain station, using and abusing whatever she could, you name it, but her DOCs (drugs of choice) were fentanyl and crystal meth. Pretty much every dollar she scrounged went to feeding her habit.
Candles provided meagre heat, sometimes a wet blanket was all there was for bedding, when it rained the cold rattled her bones.
Then, 14 months ago, she was done with it.
“My body told me it was time to clean up,” she said.
The people at the detox centre told her about United Gospel Mission’s Sanctuary for Women. The first few weeks of being clean are the hardest, she said. The temptation to use again is almost overwhelming.
UGM gave her a place be safe while she awaited rehab treatment.
“Without Union Gospel Mission, I don’t know if I’d be here,” Stock said. “I have lots to be thankful for.
“UGM showed me trust and respect, the little things that change your life. There have been so many people along the way to help you succeed and you really feel that at UGM.
“It’s a place I’ll always be grateful for.”