The Road to Recovery Celebrated by Memphis Woman

By Wiley Henry EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first installment of a two-part series about a woman who turned her life around after a tumultuous battle with alcohol and drug addiction. MEMPHIS, TN — Meishal Berniece Henry is deliriously happy. She earned a college degree in phlebotomy, makes a decent wage on her “dream job,” and purchased a new home in the Alcy Ball community. “I’m doing awesome,” she said.& But that wasn’t always the case. In fact, Henry’s journey to happiness didn’t come so easily. It was hampered by destructive behavior – a kind of self-inflicted wound that festered over time. “I didn’t know that I was sick,” Henry confessed. She was an alcoholic stuck in a quagmire that kept her in a drunken stupor for 35 years.& “I started drinking and experimenting in high school with my friends,” she explained. “But I think things went wrong when I met my husband and I got pregnant with my first child.” Henry was 19; he was 27. “He kept some things from me, and it kind of shook me up,” said Henry, now 62. “By the time I found out, I was already with child. Things went mentally downhill for...