Becky Weatherford started drinking alcohol when she was 15 years old. She was a “full-blown” alcoholic by 23, but it was not until she was 40 that she entered a drug and alcohol treatment center, she told the Mississippi Free Press last month.
Now 55, Weatherford runs Talbot House in Tupelo, Miss., where women finishing a drug and alcohol treatment program can stay “in a supportive living environment” and move toward “independent sober living,” the organization says on its website.
“I’m just grateful that I can help other people navigate their (recovery),” Weatherford said in an April 24 interview with the Mississippi Free Press. Tupelo is in Lee County, located in northern Mississippi.
The Mississippi Center for Re-Entry honored Talbot House at its Disrupting the Cycle Gala in Southaven, Miss., on April 8 with the Outstanding Community Partner Award.
“Anytime we need housing for someone, we call them, and they will place them,” Mississippi Center for Re-Entry founder Cynetra Freeman told the Mississippi Free Press after the event.
Origin of Talbot House
Becky Weatherford grew up in a “normal” two-parent household and “did well in school,” she told the Mississippi Free Press.
She got sober on May 18, 2008.
“I (later) found myself working with women in a treatment facility back in 2014, and the women I was working with didn’t have safe housing to go to once they left treatment,” she said.
“Anytime we need housing for someone, we call them, and they will place them,” Mississippi Center for Re-entry Founder Cynetra Freeman (pictured) said while discussing Talbot House on April 8, 2023. Photo by Kayode Crown
While men leaving the treatment center she worked at had seven different transitional facilities they could go to after treatment in the Lee County area, no such option existed for women nine years ago, Weatherford said.
“So I just said a prayer one day. I didn’t know it was a prayer. I just told God that these ladies needed somewhere to go, and I guess he thought that that was me asking to do it,” she explained. “So 2015 is when Talbot
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