“Before I came to St. Patrick Center, I had no plans and no hope. But I do today and that’s because of St. Patrick Center.”

Mary Fitz had an alcohol problem. “I was drinking every day and didn’t know any other way to live,” she recalls. Mary was living in a condemned building with no lights, water or heat. Worse, she was thrown out of a speeding van on the highway and damaged the nerves in her arm. “I thought I was through living, I felt I was no longer complete. My life started falling apart and I was a wreck for many years.”

When Mary came to St. Patrick Center, she felt like she didn’t belong. She thought she was better than the people she saw, but oh, how things changed! Mary got a case manager, took an alcohol class, graduated from the Living Skills program, moved into an apartment, got her GED and her favorite accomplishment, a job with City Seeds Urban Farm. “City Seeds is wonderful! I didn’t know I had a passion for gardening, and now it’s what I want to do!”

Mary’s arm is improving. She receives physical therapy two days a week at the Partnership Center’s Healthcare Wing. Mary is also a regular in the Shamrock Club. “I come back because I feel God led me here for a reason. Those people I saw when I first got here were me, and now I am here to help them if they want, just as St. Patrick Center is.”

Mary hopes to get a permanent job in the gardening business. “I am like the little seeds that I plant,” Mary says. “Just look how I have grown!”