The Woman Behind the Story
Evelyn’s experience with addiction began at a young age, through the influence of someone who had access to her life during a vulnerable time. When she describes addiction as something that was “handed to her,” she speaks to a beginning that came before she could fully understand the burden she would carry. It is a part of her story she approaches with honesty, while recognizing that no single chapter can explain the whole woman.
Throughout her years of addiction, Evelyn also pursued her education, achieved success in her career, raised three beautiful children, and started two businesses. Her accomplishments and her struggles existed alongside one another. She had ambition, ability, and love for her family while also living with an illness that continued to affect her life.
That complexity matters to Evelyn’s story. Behind the word “addiction” was a mother, a daughter, a sister, a student, and a businesswoman. There was a woman with ideas, responsibilities, gifts, and dreams. There were people who loved her, and there were parts of herself she was still trying to find.
As a Black woman sharing her experiences, Evelyn brings her whole humanity to the conversation. Her story makes room for strength and vulnerability, accomplishment and struggle, faith and the difficult work of beginning again. She understands what it means to have something valuable to offer while still needing help yourself.
“One Day You’re Going to Tell People What I Did for You.”
Evelyn carries these words as a promise she believes God spoke into her life: “One day you’re going to tell people what I did for you.”
Today, she is doing just that.
Through her forthcoming book, Irony of a Black Woman, Evelyn is giving voice to experiences she once carried through silence and struggle. Her writing reflects a life shaped by family, addiction, faith, perseverance, and recovery. It introduces readers to the woman who lived those chapters and the woman who is now finding purpose in sharing them.
Through her pre-launch Serenity Walk Tour, she brings that testimony into spaces where people can hear her story and reflect on their own. She speaks with the conviction of someone who believes her life has been spared for a purpose. Evelyn believes God can use her testimony to reach others who feel lost, offering encouragement as they seek support and find their way forward.
Writing and speaking have become meaningful ways for her to honor what she believes God has done in her life. Each opportunity to share is another opportunity to say that she is here, that her life has value, and that the chapters ahead still matter.
Coming Out of the Grave
In her writing, Evelyn uses the image of a grave to describe a place of pain, silence, and struggle—a place where she was living, but where so much of her life felt buried. Her words give voice to the experience of trying to move through circumstances that seemed to leave little room for hope.
For Evelyn, coming out of that grave has meant finding her voice, receiving love, and learning to see a future beyond addiction. It has meant returning to the faith her mother shared with her and taking her own pain to the Lord in prayer. She credits Jesus Christ with the victory she celebrates today and sees His sacrifice on Calvary as the foundation of her hope.
Now six years sober, Evelyn looks toward others who may still feel trapped in the places she remembers. She knows what it means to need someone to see you, to reach for you, and to believe there is more ahead. Her desire to help grows from that lived experience and from her gratitude for the people who continued to love her along the way.
She shares her testimony with the hope that someone listening will recognize a possibility for their own life. A first conversation, a willingness to receive support, or the courage to tell the truth about a struggle can be a meaningful beginning. Evelyn wants her story to encourage that beginning.