Gordie
Bests Story
Gordie Best is dead.
The Gordie Best who walked into businesses and committed armed
robberies is dead. The Gordie Best who spent the better part of his
life in jail is dead. The Gordie Best who abused drugs and alcohol
is dead. “The old Gordie is a dead man,” Yarmouth
County resident Randall Cook said recently, sitting in the witness
box of a Yarmouth courtroom, testifying on Best’s behalf.
“What we see today is the same body. It looks like Gordie
Best but what I can tell you today is it’s a brand new
man.” And the new Gordie Best has never felt more alive.
Based on his past and his criminal record, 46-year-old Best should
be sitting in a federal prison cell. That’s where he found
himself in April 2001 after he was sentenced to four years in
prison for an armed robbery at the Rodd Colony Inn. In a Yarmouth
courtroom a couple of months ago, Best faced the possibility of
prison again. Another four years of prison for an armed robbery at
a convenience store on Argyle Street.
But something had changed......
Mike Daigle's
Story
Mike Daigle’s struggle with addiction
began as a youngster, growing up in a small town in Northeastern
New Brunswick. His watched his parents struggle with addiction
themselves, and they separated for good when he was six.
“I was about 11 or 12 when I started smoking and
experimenting with alcohol and marijuana,” Mike says,
recalling his history with a sober, faraway gaze in his blue
eyes. He quit smoking around age 17, and abstained for a few
years. As a young man, Mike became a Christian, and later got a job
at a meat packing plant in Moncton, where he hoped to make a fresh
start. But his early experimentations laid the groundwork for a
cycle of quitting and relapse....
Brian Connolly's
Story
Brian Connolly’s father was an
alcoholic. He often drank alone in the rec-room of their home
between shifts as a regional comptroller for Air Canada. Like a
military family, they moved every two and a half years.
Brian, his mother and his two sisters were deeply affected by his
father’s drinking. “I watched him function under
extreme stress,” Brian says, drawing fingers through his
silver hair. “As a kid, I remember watching him and thinking,
‘I will never do that. I will never drink like
that!’” But Brian followed in his father’s
footsteps, anyway....
Sylvain
Blainchette's Story
When Sylvain Blainchette discovered alcohol
at age 13 with friends from school, he had no idea how drinking
would tear his life apart, or how long it would take to rebuild it.
Sylvain lived with his maternal grandparents in Saint Hyacinthe, a
small town near Montreal, Quebec. “By drinking and smoking
and experimenting with drugs, I wanted to prove I was a man,”
Sylvain says. He was interested in Christianity, however, and his
faith helped stabilize his life. After getting married and having
children, The Blainchette’s were the picture of a happy,
churchgoing family. “But we started experiencing problems
around the seven or eight-year mark,” he explained.
“Around the 10-year mark, I began to drink again, and at the
12-year mark, we got a divorce....
Jimmys
Story
From Death
to Life
Eleven months ago I was addicted to morphine
and crack cocaine along with everything that comes with it. They
were my main addictions and some ask, “How did you ever get
into that stuff”? For me it was through work. The
manager and supervisor were into drugs. One day I
didn’t have any weed and wanted to get high so I tried Delota
and never stopped. Eventually I moved to morphine which is
basically pure heroin and then I tried the needle. From there my
life went down the drain....
Freds
Story
April 29, 2009
My Name is Fred MacDonald from Windsor Nova Scotia. My life
up to this point has been nothing but prison and darkness. My
way of life has been lead by my own choices and theory’s that
lead no where because they were lies from the great deceiver
Satan....
