Nick Sterner spent two years searching Denver’s streets trying to find his son, a troubled teen who had turned to drugs.
Drug use wasn’t new for Nick Sr., as he is known. Now 44, he spent his 20s partying and smoking marijuana in an attempt to forget his own troubled past.
But when the father found his son, Nick Jr., the two tried to rekindle the bond they once had. Unfortunately, it was drugs that united them.
“I wanted to pull him out of the tunnel,” Nick Sr. said. Instead, the father fell in.
Eventually, the two finally found a stronger bond: They’re in recovery together. The Sterners entered the Denver Rescue Mission’s New Life Program in October.
Today, both men live and work at Denver Rescue Mission’s The Crossing, a 97,000- square-foot, 126-bed rehabilitation and long-term-treatment center in northeast Denver.
“They are good guys who have the potential,” said New Life program director Mark Miller.
The road to recovery wasn’t easy.
Nick Jr., now 22, was selling drugs as well as taking them. When he decided to leave that life, he was beaten and shot at and had his life threatened.
“They turned on Nick like a pack of dogs,” Nick Sr. said.
Nick Sr. wrestled with past demons while he partied with his son. From a troubled home, he had spent time in a children’s home and was abused by a counselor.
But he graduated from East High School and Barnes Business College. He married, had four sons, became a successful mortgage broker and owned a legal-services company.
The marriage didn’t last, and the elder Sterner began a drinking binge that lasted until 1996, when he swapped bottles of booze for a sturdy pair of running shoes.
Physically fit, he was sober for eight years.
Meanwhile, Nick Jr., who at 14 was so disturbed by his parents’ divorce that he ran away, became involved with drug dealers.
While they both did drugs, Nick Sr. tried to right himself so he could help his son.
In their worst period, Nick Jr. was jailed. In jail, he finally hit bottom and found religion. “It’s a Jesus thing. It’s unexplainable,” Nick Jr. said.
Upon his release, he signed up with the Rescue Mission and asked his dad to join.
But Nick Sr. was turned away, as counselors wanted his son to focus on his own recovery and not his father. After insisting, they were allowed to enter treatment at the same time, but at different locations.
Nick Sr. has begun real-estate school. He wants to help people in need find affordable housing. Nick Jr. composes rap music and blends it with Christian lyrics. He is a youth-pastor intern at Centerpoint Community Church and dreams of someday counseling homeless youths.
Staff writer Annette Espinoza can be reached at 303-820-1655 or aespinoza@denverpost.com.
