“It’s easy to say you’d do anything for your kids,” Cassandra Hazen of Neodesha said.
But for someone in the throes of addiction, it takes something even more powerful than love to keep those kinds of promises.
Hazen’s audience nodded in recognition, for many had walked in her shoes.
Hazen addressed a courtroom filled with graduates of the 31st Judicial District’s Drug Court program, their friends and family, and support staff.
“Are we willing to relive our worst moments or feel things we deem too much?” Hazen asked. “Can we do the work on ourselves to become the people our loved ones always fought with us to be? I’m fighting like hell to love myself as much as they do, and as I stand here today, I can honestly say I couldn’t do it without the people in this room.”
Hazen’s story brought the courtroom to tears. She was one of six graduates recognized Thursday for their achievements in recovery. Drug Court is a program that offers treatment and supervision as an alternative to jail time for some offenders accused of a drug-related crime.
Hazen, age 40, was released after a short stint in prison in August 2023. The day after her release, her oldest son came to see her. They hadn’t spoken in seven years, and he wanted her to know she was going to be a grandma.
“In that moment, I made a decision that I would do whatever it took to stay sober and rebuild the bond with my children,” she vowed.
That first year of sobriety may not have been easy, but it wasn’t nearly as much of a struggle as what was about to come.
On Aug. 29, 2024, Hazen received the kind of phone call that every parent fears. Her youngest son, Noah, age 18, had been in an accident and was life-flighted to a hospital in Tulsa. By the time she got there, he was gone.
Another son, Daemon, had to practically carry her down the hospital hallway after she identified Noah’s body. Daemon stopped, looked at her and said: “Mom, I know this is going to be hard with being in recovery. Come stay with me. I can’t lose you too.”
At that moment, Hazen renewed her vow to stay sober, reinforcing the fact it’s a journey.
Hazen said that day was actually the second worst of her life. Five years earlier, she had buried a teenage daughter.
“I didn’t make it through that one sober,” Hazen said. “The difference is the support system I had in place.”
Hazen thanked those in the courtroom, which included probation officers, counselors, attorneys and law enforcement.
