Mother's love finds help for son with dangerous heroin addiction

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- This is not a typical Mother's Day story.

Instead it is about pain, addiction, and a mother's unconditional love for her son.

Jarrett Cothern was a 15 year addict.

"I was in high school," he said of the beginning of his downward spiral. "I started hanging out with the wrong crowd and started making some small bad decisions "

That spiral ended with a heroin overdose in September 2014.

He nearly died.

"The pain and suffering that it caused me and my family," he said. "I wish I could turn back the hands of time but I can't."

It was the night doctor's resuscitated him that Jarrett's mother, Sharon Elgin, finally had enough.

"For 15 years it was a roller coaster," recalled Elgin. "I finally realized I couldn't do it. It wasn't for me to change it was for him to change."

She made a phone a call, got a referral, and brought him from Louisiana to Houston and Open Door Mission on the city's east-side.

"It's a defining moment for someone when they walk through the front gate at open door mission," said Cothern. "For me to be sitting here talking to you is a miracle today."

For nine months he worked on recovery and found his faith. He also found redemption and a new relationship with his mother.

"I can't say enough about my mom," he said. "She's been there for me through good and bad times."

Now Jarrett is healthy, drug free, and speaks openly about his religion and the place that gave him, and so many others, hope.

Open Door Mission survives on private donations, giving addicts treatment and counseling for free.

Jarrett and his mother call it the best kept secret in the city.

"We brought him in those gates and nine months later he graduated from the program," added Elgin. "He's wonderful. He's a Godly man."

It is days like Mother's Day that make Jarrett thankful not only for his sobriety, but for the woman who insist he achieve it.

"She's the one person who has never given up on me," he added.