I never believed in happily-ever-afters until I heard the story of Sarah Davis.
This will be the first Christmas in three years that Sarah will spend with her family. Last year, her mom spent her nights circulating fliers among hookers, pimps and drug dealers in Denver and Aurora, frantically trying to locate her.
Sarah’s brothers and sisters, who had saved her presents, finally delivered them to her at a juvenile detention facility after she was arrested in February after seven months on the streets.
She had run away so many times, her family lost count.
Sarah had struggled with mental illness since she was 13, and its effects had wreaked havoc on her two sisters, two brothers and especially her parents.
This year everything is different.
“Somewhere during that seven months, something clicked,” said her mother, Cindy Davis. “Sarah is determined to do better now.”
Her progress has been remarkable.
In March, she was transferred to Devereux Cleo Wallace center for inpatient treatment and counseling. On Oct. 13, she moved home with her family in Jefferson County.
“She was probably the most restricted 16-year-old on the planet when she first got home,” Cindy said. But as Sarah continues to do well, she’s earning more freedom. “Everything seems to be coming together.”
She is working as a server in a restaurant and studying for her GED. She’s still in therapy, but the powerful drugs she had been taking – both those prescribed by psychiatrists and the illicit drugs she depended on while living on the street – are in the past. Her only addiction now is cigarettes, said her mom, and “we’ll worry about that later.”
She volunteers at a ranch, mucking stalls, grooming horses and caring for the other animals. She’s learning to drive, letting her hair grow long, helping out at home, taking her younger siblings to the park. “It’s amazing,” said Cindy. “Everything seems so normal now.”
Recently, her younger sister, Brianna, 11, told Sarah, “If you ever run away, I’ll never talk to you again.”
But for the first time in years, Cindy isn’t worried about her running. “It’s hard to believe, but I think all that has changed,” she said.
During those months when she spent her nights searching for Sarah, most people were afraid for Cindy’s safety.
They told her she was nuts.
“Our family was in turmoil and people would say, ‘Just let her go. It’s too hard on everybody.’
“People don’t understand what it’s like to go through something like this,” she said. “They look at a runaway teenager and see anger and defiance. They don’t see the disease.
“If my child had cancer, wouldn’t everyone think it was appropriate for the whole family to be rallying around to save that child? This is similar, but most people don’t understand mental-health issues,” Cindy said.
“It was a life-threatening situation for Sarah. She needed help.”
Sarah is taking life one day at a time now, but she has clear goals. She wants to go to culinary school and then work in a restaurant to pay her way through veterinary school.
Her 19-year-old sister, Samantha, has reconnected with Sarah, as well.
It was very hard for her when Sarah was in the depths of her illness, Cindy said. “It was very, very stressful for her, trying to get through high school and keep herself focused with all the chaos at home. She’s doing well now, though. She just took her SATs and is going to apply to colleges. I almost cry when I think how well she’s done.”
Cindy, too, is slowly coming out of the abyss.
She and her husband, David, are chipping away at all the medical bills for Sarah’s treatment. Cindy hopes to return to work soon. And they’re all looking forward to a calm, happy holiday season together at home.
“It’s nice,” said Cindy, “so nice.
“I feel nothing but optimistic at this point.”
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-954-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
