thedailytimes.com : Your 24/7 news source

Julie Vanover has traveled a hard, rocky road over the past several years.
The journey has been painful, left lasting scars. But now, with the help of Joshua Resource Center and others who believe in her, Vanover is changing her life.

Charlotte Tilson is a volunteer with JRC, a faith-based organization that provides classes and mentoring to women who need help in setting and reaching personal goals. She was assigned to be Vanover’s mentor, but they have now become close friends.

“We’ve come a long way — from her getting out of jail, to being homeless, to now having an apartment and a job,” Tilson said of Vanover.

When the two women first met, Vanover had just gotten out of jail. Tilson said, “I wondered what in the world I could do to help her. That was last September.

Actually, I met her one time in the middle of last summer, and then when I found out she was back in jail, I figured that’s the last I’d see of her. Then she showed back up at Joshua after she got out of jail, basically saying she wanted to become more spiritually mature.”

Tilson said she and Vanover didn’t hit it off at first.

“We didn’t neither one care for the other,” she said, as both women broke into a laugh. She added that her previous volunteer experiences were with teenagers and young women. “I had never worked with a mature lady, and had never worked with anybody with her background. But Julie wanted to change and that right there made the difference. She wanted her life to be different. When you know somebody is trying, you want to help.”

Personal tragedies

Vanover, originally from Alabama, is no stranger to personal loss. In 1980, her daughter was killed, and within two weeks, her husband was killed in a gruesome accident in which he was decapitated. Vanover had to identify his body at the scene. She began drinking heavily after that and fell into a deep depression.
Several years ago, after moving to Blount County, she met a man who was into heavy drug use.

“He had me on drugs and stealing stuff,” Vanover said. “I got in trouble for having drugs and drug paraphernalia and for stealing.”

This man is the one who beat her with a baseball bat, putting her in a coma for six months. While she was in a coma, her teeth became infected and all had to be pulled, leaving her self-esteem even lower when she finally awoke.

The day before she met Tilson, Vanover tried to kill herself.

“I didn’t care,” she said. “I didn’t want to live.”

After that, Vanover’s life began to change for the better. She had already given up drugs “with the Lord’s help,” she said, then Tilson helped her end destructive friendships and learn a new attitude. Through her association with JRC, Vanover has learned skills to help her cope with life’s struggles and has supportive friends.

She has stopped smoking cigarettes and is looking forward to better health because of it. She has a job, an apartment, a new set of teeth. She still doesn’t have transportation, and walks everywhere she goes — including the more than two miles to her job at Little Caesar’s on West Broadway. She rarely misses a day.

Tilson said Vanover’s next goal is to regain her driver’s license and obtain a car.
“That’s the biggest way people could help right now, with donating a used car,” Tilson said.

Vanover has a renewed sense of self-worth and has grown in her spiritual life.
“Charlotte has helped me with the close walk with the Lord,” Vanover said. She attends church regularly and has a supportive pastor and Sunday school teacher.

Vanover knows how blessed she is, not only with Tilson and her new friends at JRC, but with the many others who have helped her get back on her feet: detectives with the Maryville Police Department who believed in her and helped her; her employer; her church family. She’s especially thankful for her Christian faith.

“I’ve got God in my life,” Vanover said. “I can feel the strength of Him every day. I’ve got a new ‘mom’ (Tilson), a new family — and all of them really care. I can make goals now, keep them and succeed.”

Joshua Resource Center

Pat Thompson, president and founder of Joshua Resource Center, said the role of mentor is to be an encourager to the woman who is her “marea,” a biblical term referring to the relationship between Ruth and Naomi. Mentors meet with the women, encourage them to have goals and to meet those goals so they can have a better life.

Tilson went far beyond the responsibilities of a mentor in her association with Vanover.

“I just felt like if I couldn’t do more than that with her, then I couldn’t help her with the needs that she had,” Tilson said.

JRC classes include practical information, such as computer training, how to set boundaries, how to prepare for a job interview. Classes on the Christian faith are also offered.

The next session will begin at 10 a.m. Aug. 15 at JRC, which is located at Sycamore Tree United Methodist Church, 1830 Clydesdale St., Maryville. Classes will be also be offered on Thursday evenings if enough interest is shown. For information, call 380-5370.

JRC has served about 100 women since it began offering classes and mentoring services three years ago.