NEW KENT COUNTY, Va. -- Mental illness impacts nearly 58 million Americans. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, only half of the people affected receive treatment, which can sometimes lead to suicide and physical disabilities.
In Virginia, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), nearly a quarter of Virginia’s adult population or more than one million adults have a serious mental illness.
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, CBS 6 News Anchor GeNienne Samuels featured Maryalyce Evans, who is a Certified Peer Specialist at Chester House in Chesterfield County.
She is one of many dedicated employees who offer a psychosocial rehabilitation program for adults who have experienced serious behavioral health disorders.
This includes adults who are diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or severe depression.
Maryalyce wears yellow, the color of hope. Through her voice, you’ll soon see that she not only wears the color of hope, she lives it.
GeNienne and photojournalist, Cole Pearson, visited Maryalyce at her lake home in Quiton, Virginia. Kent Lake spans across her backyard where there is a calming stillness and sounds of nature all around.
Maryalyce enjoys being outside, doing yard work, reading, journaling or just sitting in silence at the lake.
She has built her dream oasis, a perfectly placed escape that she hoped for, for 17 years.
She shows GeNienne an old picture of a log cabin-style home.
“This sat on my desk for 17 years and these are the quotes I put around it to keep me going to build the house someday. Never knowing I would ever build it again one day.”
“And you built it," GeNienne said.
“I built it.”
Inside, you might find her reading her bible, praying for those she knows and those that she doesn’t, working out to Richard Simmons on VHS, or preparing a lesson for her next trip to Chester House.
You all also see walls adorned with decades of memories of her Ukrainian and Polish roots and inspiring messages of hope and love hung delicately from corner to corner.
She shares a poem written by her dad decades ago that she can recite by memory, “a bell isn’t a bell until you ring it. A song isn’t a song until you sing it. And love that is in you wasn’t put there to stay. Love isn’t love until you give it away. My dad actually did the calligraphy.”
Also delicately framed are letters from the countless lives she has forever changed.
“Two hands reached out and asked would you like to be wrapped. The whole bunch of us were clothed and we were silent. We were sad, scared, and a bunch of flawed flowers. We needed time to trust and adjust. We didn’t want to be wrapped in old rough paper. We certainly didn’t want to be wrapped too tightly or by the wrong hands. But these hands were gentle and caring.”
Maryalyce paused before getting emotional, knowing that the writer was referring to her hands.
“We opened up slowly. The hands were flawed, just like us, but not afraid to show it.”
She shares that the person who wrote the poem was in a period of struggle for a long time, but got better.
“How does it make you feel knowing that you helped this person get from where he was… that dark place and now he’s thriving?," GeNienne asked.
“It makes me look around and say: Another one has left the nest. Another one is moving on.”
76-year-old Maryalyce is a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist in Chesterfield County at Chester House.
She works there on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in group and one-on-one sessions, workout classes, and Crisis Intervention field trips.
“Peer specialists just jump in and help people through their through their tragedies, through their worries, and they will help them stay alive.”
For close to four decades she has aided the helpless in feeling hopeful.
"I love my job. I love it because I see the progress of somebody coming in at their worst and blooming. One of my things is, that hope is not a wish. Hope is the way I live my life. Hope is helping myself first, then others.”
But the road to get to this point in her life has been a long one.
“I lost four babies before I was 30 years old. Two miscarriages and two baby boys that died. It took me 26 years to go to a baby shower," Maryalyce said.
Depression mounted and her unpredictable mood swings led to erratic outcomes. Her tipping point came at the age of 33.
"I went out the front door, through the grass through the woods to the street. And I went like this, and I took all my clothes off.”
She attempted to direct traffic.
“You know how a person cuts for pain, I took my clothes off for pain. I was free.”
Maryalce was admitted to the hospital.
“ I just had so much in my head. It felt like it was going to explode.”
She was diagnosed with manic depression, what we now call bipolar disorder.
“They told me, my family and myself, that I would never get better. It's going to be forever.”
The manic highs and depressive lows led to a failed marriage and career, and additional hospital visits until 1990 at 42, after a spiritual awakening.
“I got out of the hospital, and I've never been in the hospital since.”
She sought counseling, deepened her faith, and set herself on a path of mending.
“I got really involved in my church. Got involved in really what my calling was doing. I was ministered to the sick. I would bring communion to the people that were in housing.
Maryalyce earned a Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care certificate. Then she graduated with award recognition alongside her father from the Loyola Institute for Ministry Extension Program in 2000.
All while serving and supporting those just like her.
“God sent me. Because I've been there and done that. I tell my story, and I think it's important to know that they're not alone anymore.”
Wanda Reese, the services supervisor at Chester House, echoed the trust members have in Maryalyce.
“She sheds hope she is a light, a beacon for people. Because people can look at Maryalyce and she can talk about her past experiences. She had significant bipolar disorder that impacted her life, and she now has recovered.”
“I remember a gentleman not too long ago, who was really, really struggling and homeless and really distrustful of people. And Maryalyce was able, he really enjoyed talking to Maryalyce and hearing her story. And he felt like she could really understand what he was going through.”
“Maryalyce is so passionate. This is her life's work. This is her life's work."
Maryalyce survived her own battles so she could inspire others to overcome theirs.
“My dad was a pilot, so we moved to New Jersey, and I was behind in everything. I was a dumb person. I would walk to a remedial reading with my head down. I don't want people to do that. I wanted to hold her head up. Sorry. “
Maryalyce gets emotional thinking about others with serious mental illnesses.
"One thing I give people during the WRAP class, I give them a feather, and I say, can a goose fly with one feather missing? I tell them, And you can fly with part of your brain missing? With that piece that's missing, that's making you have a mental illness. You can fly.”
“Why are you getting so emotional right now?," GeNienne asked.
“Why? Because people think they can't But people with mental illness think it's the end of the world. I felt that way."
An emotional tug of war that she eventually conquered.
"I couldn't read, and I always use it as an excuse, but then I would learn how to read. Now, here I am writing a book.”
Her book, “Walking in Hope Living in Grace,” was published in 2014.
“This is, of course, my book. Walking in hope living in grace. There is always hope. Each chapter says hope. Everything that I did had hope behind it.”
That feeling of hope is passed on to those who need it most.
She reads another letter from one of her clients, “We are beginning recovery. Maybe not for the first time but beginning again with tools to keep us well and tools to help us if we are not well and like Maryalyce taught us even though we have lost a feather, we can still spread our wings.
This brings a smile to her face.
Through all the ups and downs, she’s grateful for the lessons learned.
“I've learned that I've accomplished a lot in life. But I'm not finished yet. I'm not finished yet. I want I want people to know that they are loved.”
Maryalyce talks about H.O.P.E. in her book. “H.O.P.E is the ticket to recovery.”
H – Helping yourself first, then others
O – Overcoming your own barriers
P – Prevent your mental pain
E – Educated yourself
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