Renewed Family Ties a Reason to Rejoice : Recovery: Pasts scarred by drugs lend extra poignancy to Mother’s Day celebration at Los Angeles Mission.

Mother’s Day might well not have been worth celebrating for 32-year-old Aracely Ramirez. Nine months ago--drug-addicted and homeless--she gave birth to her first child in the solitude of a dilapidated Skid Row hotel room.

“There was nobody around but me and her” she says of the day daughter Kathrina was born.

“I said a little prayer. It was one of the darkest days of my life.”

With no one to turn to, Ramirez wrapped the newborn in a towel and walked to the Los Angeles Mission.

“I knew when she was born that I needed help,” Ramirez said.

Paramedics were called and little Kathrina was whisked to a hospital, eventually bound for foster care.

Ramirez, who entered a one-year rehabilitation program run by the Los Angeles Mission, is now drug-free and three months from graduation.

On Saturday, the eve of Mother’s Day, the mother and daughter were reunited, along with other mothers, grandmothers and children whose loved ones are participants in two of the mission’s rehabilitation programs--City Light, which is for women, and Fresh Start, a 17-month program for men.

For many program participants, Saturday’s event celebrated the difficult task of reuniting families as a step toward re-entry into mainstream society.

“It’s a traumatic experience to call a mother or wife and wait for the voice on the other end of the line,” said the Rev. Mike Edwards, executive director of the mission.

He spoke of the courage it took for program participants, some of whom have not seen family members for months, to make calls to loved ones and begin the process of rebuilding relationships.

Inside the dining room of the mission, a “Happy Mother’s Day” banner hung across a wall as families, dressed in their Sunday best, ate lemon chicken, rice pilaf and cake served atop tables adorned with flowers.

LeSaul Turner, 31, gave thanks for his grandmother, Rosilee. He said that when he was not being shuttled between relatives and foster care after his mother’s nervous breakdown, it was Rosilee who took care of him as best she could.

She guided him through his teens and watched him graduate from college. But he said that after he was introduced to crack cocaine he soon found himself an addict, living on Skid Row.

Turner said he hid his plight from his grandmother until he entered the Fresh Start program and began to get his life back on track. “This is the first time I can truly say we have been together and it’s a real thing,” he said.

“It’s a new thing--a celebration of our relationship.”

His next goal is to re-establish contact with his mother, whom he has not seen since 1985. Ramirez has hope for next Mother’s Day, too. Upon successful completion of the City Light program, she will graduate to a transitional living program, along with her daughter.

“Today is truly a gift from God,” Ramirez said.