A FRESH START

Nellie Gash sank into an easy chair and surveyed the house she'd furnished with bargain buys from area thrift stores. An old couch with a lace throw. A granite-topped coffee table with Jet magazines laid out just so. A kitchen table with a bowl of fruit.

Nothing fancy. But this was home, the first place Gash had ever rented on her own.

Gash spent much of her 45 years battling a crack cocaine addiction that landed her on the streets and, later, in prison. Her dependence on crack stripped her of a family life and a career. It led her to sell her body on the streets. But all that's behind her now.

She is one of three women who graduated at the end of February from a two-year residential program at Magdalene House, a nonprofit in North Charleston that helps women try to break the cycle of addiction and incarceration. Gash's class was the first to graduate from the home, which opened in June 2007 as a ministry of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Charleston. They remain sober, employed and are rebuilding their lives.

"When you come from the streets or jail, you expect everyone to look down on you, but these people never did," said Gash, now four years clean. "They gave me a place that was nurturing as well as nourishing. All I can do is thank God and Magdalene House that someone cared enough to take a risk on a person like me."

Gash is enrolled at Trident Technical College and works as a waitress at a Huddle House. Her dream is to get a master's degree in counseling and open a home where troubled mothers can stay without being separated from their children.

In the meantime, Gash still volunteers at Magdalene House, as does her former housemate, Catherine Yantis.

Yantis arrived at Magdalene House in June 2008 with nothing but the clothes on her back. Her decade-long fling with crack cocaine left her destitute, in and out of jail and on the outs with her family.

The Kentucky native now attends school at Trident and works full-time as an assistant manager at a Goodwill store in Mount Pleasant. She wants to someday open a retail clothing store of her own.

"It wasn't easy, but it's good," she said of the program. "I'm doing fine. If it wasn't for that program I'd be doing the same old things."

Cynthia Arrowood, a 43-year-old mother of two, said the program gave her another shot at life after an addiction to painkillers drove her to deal drugs and pass counterfeit checks, landing her in state prison. The former Spartanburg resident has been sober for almost three years. She works at the Charleston Visitor Center, giving information to tourists. She also agreed to stay on as house manager at Magdalene House, helping the next group of women with their journey to sobriety.

"Graduating was a great accomplishment," Arrowood said. "I'd never really completed anything in my life before. I'm very proud of myself, my mom's proud of me, and I'm doing really good."

The Rev. Marilyn Powell led the effort to found Magdalene House, which was modeled after a successful program in Nashville, Tenn. Though the program still struggles to find funding and volunteers, Powell knew all the work had been worthwhile when she saw Arrowood, Yantis and Gash receive their certificates recently at a special ceremony at St. Stephen's.

"It was so wonderful to see how far they had come," she said. "They are true miracles, and I feel so good about their future."

Gash once thought little of the future beyond where she would find her next hit of crack. She has now re-established with her family, including her once-estranged 23-year-old daughter, and sees a rich life ahead, one she never imagined might be within her grasp.

"I am so determined," she said, smiling. "If someone had told me I would be doing all this, I would have said they were lying. But these have been the best years of my life. I never knew life could feel this good."

Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.