WOMAN LEAVES DRUG ADDICTION BEHIND

`Life now is so beautiful' with 3 kids But family still must overcome
poverty

It's a long, slow climb up the narrow stairs to Kelly's apartment, which
sits on the second floor of an old building.

At the top, a myriad of greens, yellows and reds awaits, from colourful
plates on walls to bright kitchen drawers. Kelly (not her real name) and her
children have painted it all.

"We don't look like we're hurting as bad as we are, but we are," she said.
"You know the expression `trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents?' I can do
that very well."

Lampshades and other items in the apartment have actually cost less than
three nickels, having been taken from the garbage and touched up.

Reinvented, so to speak, much like Kelly's life. A difficult past lies
beneath her cool, motherly demeanour. She's 43, cleaned up, enrolled in
college and looking after her three children, including two young girls.

It's still a struggle, she said.

"It's been a long, slow climb out of poverty. That's the last link to
overcome."

Kelly started dabbling in drugs at a young age, while growing up in a
small-town household where her parents and siblings were also addicts, she
said.

She left home at 16 and came to Toronto, working in restaurants before
becoming an exotic dancer and eventually falling into prostitution.

She worked the streets for about seven years while in her late teens and
20s, but started making a change when she gave birth 18 years ago.

"I knew if I didn't stop I was going to lose him or have him taken away,"
Kelly said.

She has now been clean for almost two decades, with the exception of
drinking once, she said. She's a Narcotics Anonymous member and makes
motivational speeches to johns and people with drug problems.

"Nobody twisted my arm" to get into prostitution, she said. "But coming from
where I came from, I wasn't making an informed decision.

"In a lot of ways my life now is so beautiful and I've come a long way, but
that's the last hurdle, that poverty."

Her family's meagre financial situation will continue for a while. The
three-year college program in which she's enrolled will have her on the hook
for about $40,000 in loans after she finishes next year.

Her kids know of her past, but not in much depth, Kelly said. Just enough to
warn them that drugs, for instance, are to be stayed away from. On this day,
her daughters appear to be more interested in not much more than watching
cartoons and chatting to friends.

"My children know mommy had a colourful life," she said. "They also know
that it's not something you tell everyone."

Kelly's children have been recipients of the Star's Santa Claus Fund gift
boxes. They're among 44,000 children in Toronto, Brampton and Mississauga
who get presents from the fund.