MARCH 21, 2025 RECOVERY Monique Caldwell's pursuit of happiness JONATHAN GLASS Groundcover contributor Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are the rights allotted to all Americans in the Declaration of Independence. No matter how many times you’ve fallen down, you have the right to pursue happiness. It's never easy for any of us — if it was easy, it wouldn't make us happy. Monique Caldwell has had her share of difficulty in her pursuit of the American dream. Although she’s currently among the unhoused in Ann Arbor, she has chosen to go back to school between Jackson and Washtenaw Community Colleges to complete her higher education degree in addiction studies and mental health. She will be getting an associate of general studies along with advanced certification. Her life is difficult by any standard, but she is not giving up the fight. Her positivity concerning her difficulties is inspiring. With her small circle of allies, and her devoted husband Sean, Caldwell is taking life by the horns. The path to success isn’t a straight line for anyone; it's an up-and-down, loop-toloop roller coaster that slowly gets better over time. This is Caldwell’s recovery story. It was the beginning of the opioid epidemic and Caldwell had just given birth to her second child by C-section. She was in all respects middle class. Caldwell owned a home and a couple cars, she was working at Maxey Boys Training School as a nurse, money was in the bank and she had two beautiful children. For a moment in time, they had achieved happiness. Then life threw Caldwell a curveball. The C-section left her in tremendous pain. Doctors were a lot more relaxed about prescribing opioids in the early 2000s. She was over-prescribed opioids until they did nothing to stop the pain whatsoever. Her husband at the time had a hidden heroin habit. He offered her heroin to sniff and it took away the pain. That lasted for a little while. But when sniffing didn’t take care of the pain, she started injecting it. Caldwell’s story has been the story of thousands of hard-working men and women trapped in a cycle of opioid abuse. Their only crime was a bodily injury which led to a real “Sophie’s choice” — endure crippling pain or a life of addiction. Shortly after Caldwell started using heroin, her husband lost his job and they lost their home. Caldwell said, “ I still kick myself for letting that all happen. It’s not like I grew up in a bubble. I knew that heroin was a bad drug. But please don’t judge anyone for having a use disorder because you don’t know their story. I’m a very private person. I don’t necessarily want my story published in a newspaper. But addiction stigma has to go! I’m sharing my story to show that addiction doesn't care if you’re rich, poor or in the middle — it’s a monster that wants to kill as many people as it can. And if it got me, it can get anyone. I never thought for one second I would fall prey to heroin, not for a single moment." Shortly after losing their home, her husband began stealing copper and just about any metal that was worth money. He also robbed an employee he had worked with previously as she made the nightly deposit at the bank. He was sentenced to prison and left Caldwell alone with two kids and a horrible habit. In 2011, Caldwell ended up being able to stay with a relative. She did have an active warrant and her family called and turned her in. Later that same day her family had gone through her purse and found four bundles of heroin and called the police to turn it in. Caldwell ended up going in front of Judge Shelton and he wanted to send her to prison for manufacturing and delivery because of the way it was packaged. “I begged Judge Shelton not to do that because I needed help,” she recalled. “I had asked for help a couple years before but nobody in my family cared. I told him, 'I’m an addict, please send me to treatment.'” Judge Shelton ended up sentencing Monique to one year at Washtenaw County Jail with two years of felony probation. He basically said, "Sure, you can go to treatment from jail as soon as you pay fines and costs of $1,800." It was impossible to pay once she was in jail. Nobody in her family would help. "I was completely alone. Everyone turned their backs on me." What separates Caldwell from others is her work ethic, servant’s heart and brilliant knack for turning lemons into lemonade. She could have sat in the jail cell and stared at the wall, but she became a trustee, helping others on her block and the officers throughout the jail. Caldwell also took every group that the jail had to offer such as Moral Reconation Therapy and Dual Diagnosis. She started CMH and was diagnosed with bipolar, borderline personality disorder, Opiod Substance Use Disorder, extreme anxiety disorder and PTSD. "I finally got the help that I needed to start going through all the trauma I had suffered since I was a child. "I wrote Judge Shelton a five page letter first telling him how angry I was and thought he was a complete jerk, but then thanked him because he saved my life. I sent all my completed certificates, 12 in all, and told him all the things that I had started to learn about myself, and he ended up calling the jail personally and told them to release me that day, two months earlier than I was to be released." The first thing Caldwell did was get in contact with her children. She began visits with her son but they were few and far between. It was apparent that GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Caldwell needed to get a job and apartment to be able to get her kids back from relatives. Caldwell said, “The road to getting my kids back was full of obstacles, and to be honest, it’s still a sensitive subject. I can’t go into it.” In the end, Caldwell let her kids stay with the family members, not wanting to cause any more trauma to them. Her kids turned out extremely well. Her daughter graduated at 16 and then started college right away. Her son also is doing very well. They’re both in their early twenties now. In 2016, Caldwell lost her spot at Delonis, and she ended up buying what she thought was heroin but it turned out to be carfentanil and she overdosed, almost fatally. She said, “I hated myself, but I started methadone and therapy. Methadone wasn’t the answer so I switched to Suboxone and that has done the trick to keep me sober. Another chance.” She was in a new relationship and she realized she was pregnant with her now-husband Sean’s baby, their first and only baby together. Shortly thereafter, he was sentenced to prison, and they decided to give their daughter, Eve, up for adoption. Caldwell said, “It's the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but I did my research and found a beautiful couple in Ohio who couldn't have children of their own, and they adopted our daughter. They were the perfect candidates. Let me qualify that by saying I had nothing to offer her at the time. The most selfless act I could do was to give Eve to a couple of young professionals who could make her dreams come true. The mom was a teacher, the husband was an architect. I’m heartsick over it to this day. Sean and I still couldn’t even talk about her for a long time, but we do celebrate her birthday. It wasn’t done lightly." Caldwell mentioned that she hasn’t known love like the love of her husband Sean. “We’ve had more than our see MONIQUE page 11
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