How Did We Evolve?
Kasia's Hope is our first of hopefully many homes. Kasia's Mom is one of our original founders and here is her why and how:
When I had Kasia, she was the easiest child. She made me a mom, and it was so easy to enjoy every moment. I look back now and see that at about 13, I noticed changes, but chalked it up to teenage
hormones. It didn’t take long before I figured out she was in trouble. I went to her school and tried to enlist their help, I sent her to counseling, and we also did family therapy with her. She continued to
spiral. For many years we sold homes, moved far away, moved back, lost tons of money, and our hearts were breaking daily.
There was no one that really wanted to listen, or even understood. We were judged, and still suffered daily with the pain of losing your child day by day. Everywhere we looked there was no where to turn
and we came home because we were tired from running to find that cure to her illness. Though not even we believed it was an illness back then. I kept on searching for what would change this, what would keep other parents from dealing with the ugliness and pain that this illness brings to the ill and those that love them. These years were truly difficult for everyone in our home, including my
granddaughter who I was given custody at 3 months old. Visiting her in prisons, treatment centers, sober homes. None of this was pretty.
At 27 years old, Kasia, lost her battle.
I cannot describe that pain so that you can really understand it. The pain is beyond words. I have never felt so alone in my own world. My thoughts tortured me as how I did not fix this, how I didn’t find the
cure? Though I still was only realizing that she was sick. I was only now truly understanding the tortured mind of my child. I was in a daze for a few months after her death. I had to return to a job that had me
traveling 5 states weekly. I was home on the weekends. At night I would research in my hotel room. I read everything I could. I’m still doing that. I remembered the problems I had within my own
community, the lack of resources in general in many areas. Everyone was equating these deaths as being deserved, a moral failure on them and those they loved. That was the perception, much like AIDS
had its own stigma, addiction has an equal stigma that has continued far longer and we are now only seeing a few rays of sunshine on it, much of which is driven by parents losing their children.
I saw these parents doing great things and thought then that I had a 6- year old child that lost both her parents within 2 days of each other and I had even more responsibility to change this at least in our
hometown. Kasia grew up in Woodstock and loved her town. She loved the Quiet Corner in general. She is buried a mile from our old home, and 3 miles from our new one. So, she is always close. Our son has flourished and is an outstanding human. He is 10 years younger than Kasia and has lived in the wake of her illness. Stone is today a mechanical engineer close to home and is still at home at 22. Our
granddaughter Caedence is an A student, a team member at Deary’s Gym, and a travel soccer team player. We adopted her shortly after her parents’ death, but she’s always lived with us. Stone is her big
brother and soccer coach. They help me to create change here in the Quiet Corner along with my husband.
Though when I first started holding events to bring awareness to our area very few people showed, yet our local children continued to get sick, and several have died. I kept trying and finally Karl Kuhn Jr kept showing up at my events and helping. One day we sat down had coffee and decided to do something together.
We chose our board members carefully. They needed to have the passion for our area and changing the effects of this disease in our area. Each person chosen for their individual talents. We began meeting and received help from other organizations in southeastern CT that were fighting this battle and directed us as we acquired our 501c3 Determination and became Quiet Corner Cares, which
in turn has brought Kasia’s Hope, our first women’s sober recovery home, and working on Ryan’s Hope for men in the works.
My daughter’s death will not be in vain and I will be sure that her daughter is raised to understand her predisposition and being armed with the truth about this illness. Most importantly that our area is
better equipped to help the families that are facing this struggle and how to navigate substance use disorder as a family and community. We need to provide sober homes and job training as well as
awareness for our community.
There is much to do but with seeing the support for Kasia’s Hope, I finally feel like everyone is taking notice and becoming a part of the solution with us. This is about hope and the support of a community to help those struggling while providing support for the families. We are stronger together and I believe that the Quiet Corner is acting, and our children will only benefit by being armed with the truth that a single choice in our youth could eventually lead to an illness that can
prove to be fatal, while destroying our families. As we have watched many in our community affected, it was important to create a strong organization that would not only change how we deal with this illness
in our community, but also having my daughter’s name remembered as one of change and hope for our Quiet Corner. For it was she that opened my eyes to this disease. For all the times I was angry with her
for what I felt was weakness, today I understand she was stronger than I knew. In her name I will continue to make a difference in the community she loved and make sure that her daughter is happy
and safe. That if she ever needed care, it would be available. Kasia’s Hope will provide women with the hope of a future filled with love, sobriety and community support.
Quiet Corner Cares is committed to bringing the resources needed to stop the stigma of addiction and create a recovery friendly community here in the Quiet Corner.