Moving Onward & Upward

My name is Rex Clemons and I was born in Alabama and raised in Michigan. Of five siblings I was the youngest male but also had two younger sisters. Being the middle child proved difficult growing up, as I wasn’t the youngest and I wasn’t the oldest and I was treated as so.

Early in life, at three years old, I learned about death when my mother passed away giving birth to my youngest sister. My siblings and I were split up after my mother’s death with my aunt taking my brothers and I and my father decided to keep my two sisters. Not long afterwards, my dad remarried, but he was an alcoholic and it showed at times. He would sneak me beers and cigarettes without my stepmom knowing. During these years I was alone most of the time.

In 1974, at the age of 13, I had to deal with death once again when my father passed away . A year later, we all moved to College Park, GA being that my stepmom got a job at a hotel. While here, my life started to change. At 15 years old, I began smoking weed and even started selling it to keep a few bucks in my pocket. Things were going quite pleasant for a while until once again death reared its ugly head and I had to move back to Alabama to deal with the death of my Stepmother’s Mom. Around this time I found out that my uncle and Stepmother had started dating and this weighed on me. My relationship with my Uncle truly changed one day in which he was very intoxicated and tried to kill me by stabbing. With this happening, I had to leave, so I went back to College Park at 16 years old to live with my eldest brother. The freedom I was granted was amazing. With this freedom, I started selling pills and bringing in even more money.

Speaking of more money, I decided to move to Cobb County, a richer more savvy area and became known as “the man with all the drugs you needed.” In this area I was able to make way more money than College Park. At the young age of 19, I married my high school girlfriend and we had our first son Noah a year later. During the marriage we also birthed two other children: Zachary and Jerimy. There were many problems and issues within the relationship that led to us getting a divorce. This was pretty devastating to me, so I attempted suicide by shooting myself in the stomach.

I survived the attempt and went on to try and piece my life together. I’d always kept a job even through selling narcotics, but for seven years I quit working and started to sell cocaine full time. The golden rule of a drug dealer is “don’t get high on your own supply,” but I broke the rule. I started selling enough to break even and shot up the rest to stay high.

During that seven year run I was a party animal, drinking and getting high on a daily. Over that span, I attempted suicide many times; one in particular found me trying to overdose on Nyquil by drinking four bottles of the over-the-counter medication, hoping I wouldn’t wake up. My sister witnessed the ordeal and knew in that moment that I needed help.

I went to a detox center in Cobb for 28 days. The same day I got released, I came home to cocaine and a 12-pack of beer. Obviously this decision helped push my progress back a few years.

Three years ago, I was homeless and sleeping in the woods from time to time. Things changed when I was allowed to run a men’s ministry in East Griffin for two years, but it was shut down due to lack of funding. After the church shut down, I moved with a lady name Jackie, who was an alcoholic and I started drinking again. It got so bad that I was in an alcohol-induced coma for four days. The coma scared me to stop drinking.

A great friend of mine, Clay, took me to a detox hospital, 7 Seasons Detox, for 10 days. I got in contact with Clayton Center and was referred to My Brother’s Keeper where I have been for 16 months. It has been a great experience for me here and the treatment program has helped me grow in ways that were much needed., more than I even realized.

After the great support I’ve received, I feel as though I am fully prepared to move to Tyler, Texas with my friend Clay and his wife.