Surviving Adversity: A Mother’s Journey to Recovery
In an instant, a life can shatter. A job is lost. Bills pile up. The house is gone. Children are taken away. Every day is a struggle for survival. Life took such an unexpected turn for one of Ritter Center’s clients.
“That will never happen to me,” Jalynne Allen recalls, reflecting on passing someone living on the streets. “I grew up in Marin’s bubble of wealth and thought those weren’t people we’d ever associate with, and now, I’ve lived on both sides of that coin.”
A master gardener, she built a successful career, while a single mother of two children who attended both public and private schools in Marin. She never received child support from her ex-husband, and as financial strains intensified, she began juggling five jobs simultaneously.
To relieve the stress, she began drinking. “It started with just a glass of wine or two.” Her struggle with alcoholism escalated into a full-blown crisis. “Looking back, I realize I was having a nervous breakdown, and I couldn’t stop drinking.”
She found herself facing the stark reality of homelessness. Desperate to provide a safe haven for her children after losing their home, she turned to her sister for help. Initially intended as a temporary arrangement, her children’s stay with her sister stretched indefinitely.
“Reclaiming stability at age 50 is vastly different than being on the verge of eviction. People who are precariously housed have to hold on tight because finding housing after landing on the streets is an uphill climb. Once you lose your home, nothing’s ever the same.”
Marked by the threat of eviction, turbulent relationships, and battling substance abuse, her harrowing journey through homelessness proved grueling. Bouncing between shelters, hospitals, and psychiatric wards, she endured six years unhoused. Reflecting back, she recalls, “It’s astounding to think that I once pulled up in a BMW station wagon to a shelter to donate clothes.”
She found a wellspring of hope at Ritter Center. “Ritter Center has been a huge part of my healing. The food bank saved us. We could eat. They even helped me get my teeth fixed. I consider myself lucky to have found the right psychiatrist and medication, and a supportive team of people who lifted me up.”
Then a setback came when she missed an opportunity for housing due to drunkenness. “I felt a lot of shame,” she says, but after many years of intense struggle, with the Ritter Center team’s help, she got a second chance and secured housing—the turning point. “I wouldn’t be in the apartment I am in now without Ritter’s help. Housing is a fragile right that I feel incredibly fortunate to have. This drives me to keep working hard and continue healing.”
With the help of a dedicated therapist, she’s found sobriety and gained a fresh perspective on life.
“I lost everything, but I don’t regret it. Other than losing my children, it was a blessing, teaching me to become a more empathetic human being. You’re either born humble—or made humble.”
Her journey through adversity and redemption transcends mere survival; it illuminates the power of empathy, strength of community, and resilience of the human spirit.
