NPORTC Magazine

oger Wilkins is one of those rolling stones, traveling from place to place. At seventy, he thought it might be

a dark path. Through all the turmoil, my son was born.” He took off when he got into some trouble. “I kept running and kept moving, moving, moving.” But then, he found something—or rather someone—he could run towards. His first grandson was born. “Who would have thought, me—a grandfather? I ran back to Baltimore as quickly as I could to see this child. I held him and changed him; I saw his first steps. It was a God-given gift for me. I wasn’t there for my son, but I ran to my grandchild. He’s fourteen now. He's playing basketball. I went to one of his games, and boy, was I ecstatic. I love the way he plays; he's a good basketball player.” Roger may be settling down at last, but he’s not slowing down. “One thing about me; I’m easy—my blood pressure’s good. I thank God for my easiness because I do try to take care of myself. I go down to the gym when I get a chance. I joined a boxing club last March, and I’m still a member.” Yep… Roger boxes! “Look, I have fun with it. My son and a few other people in my family say, ‘What's the matter with you? You’re crazy!’ No, I'm not crazy—I’m gonna live till I die. That’s it. I’m not gonna sit around waiting to die. I'm going to have fun. I’m gonna go out. I like to take walks, I like to punch the bag, and I like beautiful days like today. I try to keep myself standing tall because of my grandbaby—born the same day as me—we share the same birthday.”

time to find a home. He was at a shelter when he decided to come to New Place of Recovery Treatment Center, and he’s been here for about three months now. “The house is nice; we’ve got a laundry service, our meals are prepared, we have chores, and we keep the place up like it was when I was in the army. It’s a team effort. When everybody's working together, things run a lot smoother.” Not everyone comes here for treatment— Roger has been clean for a while now—but he needed a home. “Now that I'm gonna stop running, I kind of want to sit down a little bit. I'm an older gentleman now, so it's not really a lot of excitement I want to do anymore; I'm just laid back now. Before I stopped, I was indulging in drinks, dope, marijuana—but I'm seventy years old, and that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” He was still required to go through the program, which he didn’t mind. He especially liked the classes, including CPR training. “You're never too old to learn. I learn every day. Life is a learning experience, and I like to know things I don't know.” Roger has had his ups and downs. “I worked a shipyard for a while, I did some reserve time, and I worked for the school board doing maintenance; it was pretty good. But after a while, things got a little rough there, and I took

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