I was visiting with my producer Christopher Acker about our 3-part series on addiction, alcoholism, and sobriety earlier this week. We got some remarkable feedback on the series, and I’m really thankful for the people who took time to reach out to share how the episodes had touched them.

As we started talking about the upcoming episodes - including this week’s show - Christopher pointed out that even though it wasn’t labeled as part of the series on addiction, it was still very much related. I hadn’t considered that, but he was absolutely right.

Luci Hernandez, or Lucky Luci, tells her story of destruction, demolition, and rebuilding - both in the house she’s rehabbing into a home, and in her life that today looks a lot different than she had imagined when she first moved to Kansas.

I first heard Luci’s story this June during Talk 20 at the Hutchinson Public Library. If you haven’t attended Talk 20 before, you’ve been missing out. At its core, Talk 20 is a way to show us the lives of neighbors - particularly those neighbors who might not ever tell their stories to a broad segment of the community.

Luci told her story about moving to Kansas with a plan for the future, only to watch it all fall away from her. She had to figure out what she might do next, and from the remnants of the life she had imagined, she began to rebuild her home, and herself.

Her story is one of resilience and hope, and I think you’ll find, as Christopher pointed out, that it’s very much a story of recovery.