KINGMAN – Residents of Diane’s Hope House are women who have spent six months of the recovery program in the first house, then transitioned there.
Lily McMillan is one of those young ladies.
“I grew up in a Christian home, my parents were married, but I started getting addicted to pain pills when I was 17,” Lily said.
Then, she got into a bad relationship and found herself in other states, even other countries like India and Mexico.
“It was in Mexico that I started using crack cocaine and heroin when I was 20,” she said.
“My parents were trying to do all they could to get me clean and sober, even flew me out to Cody, Wyoming to get me clean.”
She said she flew back to Kingman when she was 22, but wasn’t yet ready to stop using.
“I stopped using crack and started drinking,” Lily admitted. “I met my husband and kept drinking hard. There were times of sobriety, but it wouldn’t last. I’d always go back to drinking.”
Ms. McMillan said she got pregnant in 2001 and was able to stay sober for the nine months of her pregnancy, but shortly after her daughter was born, she started drinking again.
“I was never able to control drinking, but I didn’t want to be a Mom who was drinking all the time,” Lily said. “In January of 2024, my boss and my mother came to my house and let me know they had called rehab, so back to treatment I went.”
She said she did a 30-day program at Hickory, that is now shut down. She found an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) sponsor who had been sober for 16 years.
“I was going to AA meetings and I drank for what I thought was my last time. My mother found me passed out drunk. She needed me to get help. She was about to give up on me.”
Lily called her AA sponsor who recommended Angel Manor.
“I’ve been here over a year and I’m moving out July 1,” she said proudly. “I continue to work with my sponsor and AA and NA meetings.”
While at Angel Manor, Lily has obtained a Certified Nurse Assistant certificate and in August starts the next course on her way to becoming a registered nurse.
Angel Manor Director Wendy Rapp Weaver said Lily has done everything she needed to do and more while in the recovery program there and feels she’s ready to move on with a successful life.
Another success story at Diane’s Hope House is that of Yajaira Torres. She had lost her four children because of her addiction to alcohol, marijuana, and meth, she said.
“About four years ago I started using meth. It was my downfall,” Yajaira said.
“I had a teenage daughter, and I gave her too much responsibility while I was working. She started running away from the house at age 14. Due to that, I left the kids alone while I worked and they were taken away.”
She said her lawyer recommended Angel Manor and since living there, has been given custody of her children again, three living with her there.
“When I first came in here, I didn’t have my children,” Yajaira said. “I could not have gotten them back without being where I am now.” Yajaira said. “Being at Angel Manor has helped me keep my job, attend Bible studies to continue my growth and keep my children.”
Stay tuned for Part 5 next week.
