The Times of Trenton published the following article on 2/15/2014. To read the full article, click here.
Woman fights homelessness and addiction with the help of Trenton Rescue Mission
Nicole Mulvaney / February 15, 2014
When Donna Wile stepped off the train on South Clinton Avenue in Trenton last March, she was hungry and alone in a city she’d never visited before. With only a bag of clothes and a cellphone to her name, Wile was heading straight for the Rescue Mission of Trenton on Ewing Street when she reached for her iPhone and was sent “a message from God,” she said.
Wile, originally a Middletown resident, underwent emergency colon surgery in September 2008 after coping with the deaths of her father in 1995, a close childhood friend in April 2007 and her mother in April 2008, she said. Wile’s surgery led to three additional operations, and the culmination of events sent Wile into a downward spiral, she said.
As she tried to numb her pain, Wile developed a dependence on opiates and alcohol, addictions that ultimately broke up her nearly 40-year marriage and forced her and her husband to sell their home, caused her to lose her massage therapy business and left her estranged from her three adult children and two grandchildren, she said.