A Story You Made Possible

One summer, the Valley’s heat nearly killed Stevie. She had fallen asleep on burning concrete with no shade and no water, and when the police found her, they couldn’t get her eyes to open.

“They thought I was on drugs,” she says. “I was just having a heat stroke.”

Stevie had been struggling for years. Addiction had pulled her under and cost her nearly everything: her home, her family’s trust, and time with the children she loved.

For Stevie, getting through a triple-digit afternoon was her main worry. She slept by day when it was safer and kept moving so the police wouldn’t have a reason to bother her. Water was never a given, and a day without it could pull her under fast.

“It was very lonely,” she says. “I didn’t feel like anybody cared. It was a daily battle to get through every day.”

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