{"id":37324,"date":"2023-06-08T09:10:34","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T14:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/testimonial-dany-quebec-city-day-centre-2019\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T14:09:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T19:09:00","slug":"testimonial-dany-quebec-city-day-centre-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/testimonial-dany-quebec-city-day-centre-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Dany’s Testimonial, Quebec City Day Centre, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

A Promise to Myself<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

In order to please my dad, I took over his construction business; but I never felt recognized in my role. For 35 years, I lost myself in a world of illusion. All I wanted was to numb myself to reality; but substance use takes a heavy toll. My body was rebelling against me and there were times when I couldn’t even utter a word. It got to the point where I wanted to die and join my beloved brother who had passed away as a result of his substance use.<\/p>\r\n

I started my external therapy program at Portage in 2019. I needed to learn how to stay sober in a world where drugs are everywhere. I no longer had any self-esteem. Even though I had everything you need to be happy, I didn’t feel like I deserved to be.<\/p>\r\n

When I got to Portage, I had no time to waste and everything to gain. Dealing with 50 years of life in four months was a challenge I was willing to take on. I had to learn to go easier on myself, to forgive myself and, above all, to allow myself to become the woman I really wanted to be.<\/p>\r\n

After four years of working on my recovery, I turned the page on an important chapter of my life by helping my parents close down the family business. I achieved my dream of fulfilment by creating a cozy nest for myself by the water.<\/p>\r\n

I am now a receptionist at Portage, where I greet all those seeking help. It comforts me to assist people who are going through what I myself went through. I welcome them with a honest look, remember each person’s name, offer them a good cup of coffee and always make sure they get a comforting meal.<\/p>\r\n

Dany, Qu\u00e9bec City Day Centre, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

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A Promise to Myself In order to please my dad, I took over his construction business; but I never felt recognized in my role. For 35 years, I lost myself in a world of illusion. All I wanted was to numb myself to reality; but substance use takes a heavy toll. My body was rebelling… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":37320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[364],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testimonial"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37324"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44742,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37324\/revisions\/44742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}