My Story

When we lost CarrieAnn I lost a part of myself and didn’t know how to continue on the journey of life. I spoke with different people who said you just need time and you will find your new
purpose, you will find a way to honor her. I thought how is that even going to be possible? How am I going to be able to honor her if I can’t even figure out my own purpose? It has been a long journey for me, but along the way I have found my people and my purpose. I was able to find that in myself along with the people I met through the beading hearts that if I surround myself with people who get me I don’t feel so alone. I have learned that doing service work has become a large part of my healing journey, which brings me to Navigating the Journey. Helping others helps me to heal, I spend a lot of time with amazing women and men telling our stories of our loved ones lost to this disease. Through the beading hearts we get to go talk about our loved ones lost, and share our stories of them at the Yaphank correctional facility with the inmates, also at sober homes and rehabs. We are on a journey from loss to recovery and I would like to be able to help people who are on a journey from substance use disorder to continue on their journey to recovery. One struggle for those on their recovering journey is getting places, in order to help them with their recovery. The main purpose of Navigating the Journey will be to provide the transportation needed to get to Crossfit (which they will have access to scholarships from The James Pinka Foundation), recovery meetings, and peer lead events. We will hopefully be able to help anyone seeking recovery get them to where they need to go, to get the help they seek. Starting this not for profit is a way to help others heal by sharing the stories of lost loved ones to addiction, we will honor them and never forget them.