By Jef Rietsma
Journal Correspondent
With poise and a sense of triumph, five people talked candidly Tuesday about the lowest moments in their lives, and the long road that brought them back to a better place.
The fifth annual “Voices of Hope and Recovery,” presented by St. Joseph County Substance Abuse Task Force, yielded such anecdotes, with drug and alcohol use as common threads.
There were many other similarities among the five speakers at Riverside Church in Three Rivers. They experienced alcohol and drugs at an early age, had numerous run-ins with the law, eventually lost custody of their children, yet still chose to return to a toxic relationship or drug-using circle of friends.