The narrative that follows will make you cry, but it will also inspire you to believe in the power of forgiveness.
Ginny Burton was raised in a chaotic environment. She had six siblings, a mentally unstable mother who sold drugs while abusing them, and a father who was imprisoned for a series of robberies when she was just four years old.
Life didn’t come easy for her.
Ginny began using marijuana when she was six years old, taking care of her own mother. At age 12, she switched to meth, and by age 14, she was doing crack.
She was raped at age 16 by a man who had purchased narcotics from her mother. She made her first of numerous attempts at suicide the following year.
It doesn’t end there.
When Ginny became pregnant, the baby’s father was fatally shot. She finally gave birth to two children and wed into an abusive marriage. Ginny’s life had never been nice, and from the moment of her birth, she had no chance.
The situation progressively worsened as she matured. She started using heroin at age 21. She had a serious heroin addiction by the time she was 23.
Her addiction pushed her to do illegal things.
Ginny and a man who goes by the name Jack used to rob Mexican drug traffickers while holding them at gunpoint in order to support their addiction.
This woman was losing control of her actions, and just when she believed she couldn’t sink any lower, she did. In addition to having her children taken away from her, Ginny had stolen automobiles and shot someone.
She lost grip on who she was.
“I have 17 felony convictions. I am the person you used to clutch your bag when I walked by you. I am the person that would randomly attack someone in public. I was not a savory person. Everybody was a victim and everybody was a prey,” Ginny recalled.
Ginny had already spent three times in state jail, but her final arrest on December 5, 2012, marked a turning point in her life.
It was her life’s most important moment.
Ginny had been up all night, high on amphetamine and heroin, and had been committing forgery crimes throughout Tacoma. She was driving a stolen truck to Walgreens when a police officer stopped her because one of her lights was out.
“I knew I was OK. I knew when he put the handcuffs on me and put me in his car, I knew my life was going to change and it was then, in that moment, that I made the decision to turn it around no matter what it took.”
She asked to be treated.
Ginny pleaded with the prison staff to enroll her in the Drug Diversion Court program. At the Regional Justice Center, she later received therapy, became sober, and maintained her sobriety.
She spent seven years providing social services at the Lazarus Day Center and for the Post Prison Education Program. Ginny then enrolled at South Seattle College. Being an adult taking classes with kids made her feel uncomfortable and weird, but it also made her feel something new.
She was determined to move forward.
“It made me recognize how much time I had wasted in my life. And I also recognized that I was actually good at learning. [It was] something I enjoyed,” she remarked.
Ginny successfully submitted her application to the University of Washington. She received a Martin Honor Scholarship from the university in 2019 and then pursued a career in political science.
She’s incredibly smart.
She was selected for the university’s all-academic team and was later named the 2020 Washington State Truman Scholar. She was trying to rekindle her marriage to Chris Burton, who had just been recently released from prison, as all of this was going on. Chris is now sober as well.
On Facebook, Ginny posted two side-by-side images of herself. One was of her in a 2005 mugshot, and the other was of her wearing a cap and gown as a University of Washington graduate.
Ginny intends to pursue a master’s degree and utilize it to improve jail conditions. She wants to alter the system and combat addiction both internally and externally. She has plunged into the darkest abysses, but she has emerged from them stronger than ever, ready to take on anything and transform the world.
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