Klara Tammany, former director of the Center for Wisdom’s Women in Lewiston, looks out the second floor door leading to a balcony overlooking St. Mary’s Nutrition Center and a large garden where they grow flowers and vegetables. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
LEWISTON — Three tear-shaped crystals hang in the meditation room of Sophia’s House each representing a woman from the Center for Wisdom’s Women who has died.
One is for Margaret.
Margaret died before she could get the help that Sophia’s House eventually offered: love and support for those who’ve been exploited or trafficked, who are battling addiction or are just out of prison.
The Center for Wisdom’s Women opened the group home a year ago with help from many in the community, Klara Tammany said.
Margaret was a 34-year-old battling addiction. She came to Wisdom’s drop-in center on Blake Street often and had friends there. But the center was open just a few hours a day and didn’t offer enough help, Tammany said.
About eight years ago, Margaret was in the hospital. “Her liver was failing,” said Tammany, who visited her and asked if she wanted to live.
“She said she ‘didn’t want to die for my kids,’” Tammany said. Soon, Margaret checked herself out of the hospital against the doctor’s wishes and came to the center still wearing hospital pajamas.
“She had a prescription but no money to pay for it,” Tammany said. “We got her the prescription. We gave her some food. Before she left to go back to her lodging room, I said, ‘Margaret do you want a hug?’”
The two hugged. “It was a bear hug. I hugged her and said, ‘Margaret we love you.’ She died the next day.”
That was when Tammany and others decided they needed a residence where broken women could live for up to two years, rent free, to heal, to be loved and become independent. Planning for Sophia’s House began.
Fast forward to 2021, a year after Sophia’s House opened.
One of the four women living there is Amy, (not her real name.)
Amy arrived last March nearly sober. She had lost two siblings to drug overdose. Then her mother died, a lot of loss for someone not yet 30, Tammany said.
“It brought waves of grief. But she stayed,” Tammany said.
Amy is about to give birth and Sophia’s House staff and residents just threw her a baby shower. For the first time in her life, Tammany said, Amy feels loved and has a healthy family.
Since Sophia’s House opened, there’s been “a movement from distrust to trust, from fear to joy, from loss to belonging. That’s the change in a year,” Tammany said.
Tammany predicts the soon-to-be mother will be self-supporting in her own place within two years.
“Her goal is to be a recovery coach counselor. I think she’ll get it,” Tammany said.
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