Mary Harris
speaker
236 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard Sep 2023
last heard 25 May
Mary Harris’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.
Appearances
What did you say? The truth. She told them exactly what had just happened. After that fight in the parking lot, Jessie started getting needles for Kalen. Then she ordered Narcan. She got a big box to distribute around town. And inside was a never-use-alone card. Jessie saw it and thought, huh, good idea.
I heard about Never Use Alone when I ordered my own Narcan from the New York City Department of Health. You have to go to a training before they'll send it to you. The training tells you how and when to reverse an overdose, and one of their PowerPoint slides mentioned the hotline. At the time, I imagined Never Use Alone was some official thing, like 9-1-1. But it's nothing like that.
It was started, as Jesse puts it, by a bunch of drug users who were tired of watching their friends die. When she first volunteered to answer calls, the screening process to be an operator consisted of talking to one guy to see if he were a fit. The very same day, she picked up her cell and got connected to someone who was about to get high.
In the years since, Jesse's set up a whole system, a script that operators can use, a training regimen. But this organization is still basically run on a Google Doc and a prayer. I hung out while Jesse took one call after another over two days.
The calls were intimate, sometimes joyful. One guy talked to Jesse for like half an hour about his life, where he was going over the weekend, his girlfriend, his health. You do good.
Another guy felt guilty for taking up Jesse's time. He tried to have everything ready to go when he called, and he apologized afterward.
He told her he tapes Narcan to his arm and sits on his porch after getting high in case he passes out. He hopes his neighbors will find him. There was no recovery talk. Sprinkled throughout these conversations were little reminders of how scary things are for the people who need this line.
Jesse gently admonished one caller who told her he'd used on his own a few hours before without letting her know.
It's notable that everyone in this story has some kind of connection to addiction. The people who started the hotline, Stephen the paramedic, Jessie with her daughter, and actually, Jessie herself. 20 years ago, she had a real problem with opioids.
For Jessie, there was no rock-bottom moment. But after a couple of years, she started running out of pills, and she didn't want to risk her nursing license to get more. She quit cold turkey, spent three days sick on her bathroom floor. Then it was over. Jessie says her daughter Kaylin started using years later, when a boyfriend introduced her to heroin. Jesse wonders about why a lot.
Everyone has a why, Jesse says. Kaylin's why, she thinks, sort of has to do with her. Their particular mother-daughter relationship. Jesse can be a hard ass. Kaylin, too. When Kaylin got pregnant at 15, Jesse thought Kaylin's boyfriend was bad news. So she blocked him and his family from calling Kaylin's cell. Kaylin was pissed. She threatened to move out.
One morning, Jesse told her to go ahead and do it. So she did. They'd see each other every once in a while, but it wasn't the same.
Over the years, Jessie's watched Kaylin go back and forth. She'll have months of sobriety, then return to use. Kaylin's been picked up by the cops, had her photo posted on the local police department's Facebook page. While I was visiting, Jessie called Kaylin up. Kaylin said she'd come by to talk, but she never showed.
I think Kaylin's part of why Jesse takes so many of these never-use-along calls. It's people like her daughter on the other end. She told me as much.
When Jessie took that call from Kimber, listened to her OD on the line, she knew better than to expect that moment to change Kimber's life. And the next day, when Kimber thanked Jessie for saving her, and then quickly followed that up with, I want to use again, it didn't surprise Jessie. In fact, for Jessie, this was good news. It meant she could encourage Kimber to keep using the line.
And it was an invitation to stay in touch. So she did. She friended Kimber on Facebook, texted her for no reason. A few months after her OD, Kimber started calling Jessie Mama. But Kimber would also drift away. When she did that, Stephen and Jesse would try to keep track of Kimber online, what she was liking and commenting on.
Messenger shows her active six minutes ago, Jesse texted Stephen at one point. She hasn't even read my message. I text her phone, nothing. Yeah, he replied, she's been leaving me on read, like she'd seen his message but hadn't replied. A month later, Jesse tried Kimber again. Hey, I haven't heard from you in a while. I hope that means you're good, she texted. Two days later. Hello? Are you good?
A day after that. Hi, this is Jessie B in case you lost my contact. It's not like you not to respond. I'm growing concerned. She added a heart emoji, pressed send, and hoped for the best. Act 4. Kimber. While Jesse was checking in with Kimber by text and Facebook, Stephen, the paramedic, he was trying to help out IRL. After all, he and Kimber lived in the same town.
Stephen got Kimber back into rehab. Then he offered to get her into job training. A few weeks after her overdose, he posted a picture of the two of them on Twitter. Kimber had shown up at Stephen's July 4th barbecue. A few months after that, though, is when Kimber went silent. For Stephen and Jesse. Weeks went by. Then months. And then Jesse got a text from a number she didn't recognize.
It read, Hey, Jesse, it's Kimber. I just wanted to give you my new number. Jesse replies, Oh, hey, hi! Four exclamation marks. Kimber was alive. No, you're good. This, of course, finally, is Kimber. Kimber lives in Vermont now. She's been sober for one year. The place she calls home is a tidy duplex where she lives with her little gray dog, Luna, and not a lot else.
Showing 201–220 of 236 · page 11 of 12
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