MACON, Ga. — A Macon woman has proven it's never too late to turn your life around. After battling a 14-year drug addiction, she's now helping others through a homecare business.
Robin Calhoun is proud of the woman and business owner she's become, but she says during a dark time, she never thought she'd be where she is today.
"I didn't realize that I was getting ready to throw away 14 years of my life, and that's exactly what happened," she recalled.
Those years were thrown away by a more than a decade-long battle with a drug addiction, ultimately driving her into a dark place.
"Then, it came to a point of my life where this addiction became the love of my life. Being on drugs is like being in prison because you don't have your mind. You don't have a mind to do anything but sit and smoke dope," she said.
The journey became overwhelming, balancing motherhood and an addiction. She even recalled times she had to ask family members for food, and even a brush with child protection services.
"They did step in for a while. They were handling my money, issuing out money paying my bills, issuing out money to go to Walmart -- I mean, anything," Calhoun said.
Calhoun says dark times don’t always last. She says she became clean after a church service on December 8 of 2002.
"I asked Him. I said, 'God, you got to help me. I don’t know what to do,' and that day, I fell to the floor, I cried, I cried. The pastor got down on the floor with me, she prayed for me and she said, 'You asked God to save you, now go tell somebody you're saved," Calhoun said, speaking on her sobriety.
She found sobriety and an unexpected career as a homecare provider with her business, Robin's Helping Hands.
“A friend of mine recommended me to one of her friends about sitting with her grandmom -- this lady was bedridden. I’m like, 'I’ve never done that before.' She said, 'Well, Robin, maybe it’s something you might like doing it.' I said, 'OK,'" she said.
She hasn’t looked back since. Now, the seat she's in inside the office she now has is motivated by her drive to help others.
"You know, I just feel like I need to give back because of what has been given to me. God has restored my life. Now, I want to be there to help give life to another," she said.
Calhoun grew her staff from 5 people to 9. She says she hopes to get more clients in Houston County and ultimately branch out to personal homecare.