RECOVERY In Sickness and in Health How John Martinez and Phaedra Carco found Gándara Center—and One Another John Martinez, the volunteer coordinator for the Hope for Holyoke Recovery Center, does not mince words when he describes what he was like at his worst when he was addicted to drugs. “I was on a rampage,” he said. Born and raised in Manhattan, he began using substances in sixth grade. His addiction eventually landed him in jail. When John was released, “I went right back to where I left off.” When asked when he knew he had hit rock bottom, he replied, “I hit many bottoms. You don’t have to be homeless to hit bottom. You can have a place to live but have a spiritual emptiness.” By 2009, he had had enough of this lifestyle. “I was tired,” he said. “I tried a bunch of detox programs, but I couldn’t stay in recovery.” Still, there was hope: John had a cousin who used to work at Gándara Center. “I begged him for help,” he said. John got the help he needed. His cousin put him in a detox program at Providence Hospital in Holyoke, and after that there was a bed waiting for him at the residential Gándara Addiction Recovery Program (GARP) in Springfield. “I had never been to Massachusetts in my life,” he said. However, it was in this state that he found recovery, a purpose in life, a new home—and his future wife. Phaedra Carco, from the eastern Massachusetts city of Malden, had been addicted to drugs and alcohol since she was 17, and like John, couldn’t maintain her recovery no matter how hard she tried. “I was trapped in a cycle of relapse and clean time,” she recalled. When Phaedra was ready to quit once again at age 37, she couldn’t find a halfway house in the Boston area. Then an opening came up at Gándara Residential Services for Women (GRSW) in Holyoke. “At GRSW I found a foundation of women who supported me in my recovery,” she said. “They gave me my life back.” After her stay in 2009, came back to volunteer there. “I went to Recovery Coach Academy in Northampton with the help of the Hope for Holyoke recovery center,” she said. “It was there where I got my first taste of actually working in the field of recovery, and Gándara Center hired me as a recovery coach in 2016.” In that year she went to school at UMass-Boston at Tower Square in Springfield, where she earned her Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor certification. In March of 2017 she became a case manager at Gándara’s Transitional Support Services in Westfield, and then in May of 2018 she was promoted to be the program’s intake coordinator. Phaedra said Gándara Center helped her find purpose in life. “I had reached a point where I didn’t think recovery was part of my future,” she said. “I didn’t think I had a future. I had lost my dreams.” She met John at a recovery dance at the former Basilica of Holy Apostles in Springfield in 2009. Although many professionals discourage beginning romantic relationships during the first year of recovery—because people have a lot of growing and learning to do as individuals during this time and are extremely vulnerable—there are exceptions. They waited until they both had graduated from GARP and GRSW to begin dating. “We had put recovery first, and we still do,” said Phaedra. “If we’re about to go out to dinner, and he says, ‘I have to go to a meeting,’ he’s going to go to that meeting.” John agreed: “We support each other in our recovery. Back then, she trusted me before I trusted myself. In the end, we have a common bond.” The couple, who live in East Longmeadow, MA, are engaged to be married, but they haven’t set a wedding date yet. John said the Gándara staff gave him a chance when it seemed no one else would. “Because of my record, it was hard to find a job,” he said. “I did a lot of labor off the books. I loved the volunteer work at GARP, and I still volunteer there.” When Hope for Holyoke opened in 2016 and needed a volunteer coordinator, John jumped at the chance. He credits Gándara Center Executive Director Henry Julio East-Trou with “believing in me from the start.” John and Phaedra find inspiration in their work every day. “My job motivates me in my recovery,” said Phaedra. John said that he enjoys the process of helping people put their lives back together. “I want to spread the message that life can get better,” he said. “I certainly don’t want to keep it to myself.”
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