It’s 9 p.m., and Shelly Shrum awakes from her nap. It’s time for work. Her husband and daughter are already asleep, and so Shelly’s night starts off quietly.
But Shelly’s life has been far from quiet.
She and her family live in a house on Cedar Street, nestled against the Daniel Pitino Shelter, a transitional housing center that assists struggling and homeless women and families in Owensboro.
Her house. Her life.
Shelly has come a long way, but she had to start at rock bottom.
She became addicted to prescription pain medicine in 2008 as she tried to deal with stress. Through a combination of bad luck and scuffles with the police, Shelly and Stephen, her husband of 16 years, both went to jail. The two were falsely accused of arson but were held in contempt of court.
Once free, the couple found themselves on the street.
“We went from having everything to having nothing,” she says.
The two lived in different homeless shelters for months and saw each other during the day when they were not working. Shelly gave birth to their daughter, Phoenix, and ever since the three have been trying to stay positive as they remain a strong family unit. Phoenix is now 2 years old.
“When it comes down to it, all we have is each other,” Shelly says.
Shelly found the Pitino Shelter, and for the first time in almost two years they were all together as a family.
Shelly, 31, now works the night shift at the shelter, and Stephen, 39, is a supervisor at a local brickyard. Now Shelly is in a position where she can help those who are in the same trouble she was in just months before.
They can live in the shelter-owned house for only another year before it is another family’s turn, and the Shrums hope to buy a house of their own.
“I have no idea what I’m doing tomorrow,” Shelly says. “I have no idea what the future holds. I’m just staying positive and know I’m never going back.”
