PORTLAND — Glenn Simpson is not at all puzzled about his project to earn s master’s degree in social work at the University of New England.
“We can tell the war stories; I like to focus on what recovery looks like,” Simpson said Dec. 10 about “Pieces of Recovery: The Puzzle Project.”
Simpson, 49, has been in recovery for 19 years. He is now collecting other individuals’ stories of loss, recovery and making lives new and whole, piece by piece.
“The goal is to create 418 puzzle pieces representing the number of (fatal) drug poisonings in Maine (in 2017),” he said.
The pieces are uniform in size at 1-by-1.5 feet, the stories behind them are not, and Simpson’s quest has taken him to detox, treatment and recovery centers throughout the state.
Fifteen pieces from Aroostook County have yet to make it to the Eastern Promenade home Simpson shares with his partner, Elaine Shamos.
In Caribou, Kathryn Allenby said members of the fledgling Road to Recovery Community Center were delighted to contribute to the project.
“We had children and teenagers sitting at the table, it was a great experience of the human soul and it went throughout the day,” she said Dec. 6.
On April 6, 2017, Allenby’s sister Georgianna (Michaud) Zercie died. Her brother, Charles Michaud, was later convicted for supplying the drugs that killed her, in part because Allenby turned him in.
“As an affected other, I was struggling with a lot of guilt,” she said. “But I was very thankful for people I shared this with saying ‘you probably saved his life.'”
Allenby, who has been active in recovery for four years, said she began her piece with green and earth colors that remind her of her sister’s love of gardening, and added black strips while writing her sister’s name and the day she died.
“I just started right with the work, I let the process unfold, it was extremely healing,” she said.
In Sanford, Ashley Cox said she needed both sides of the puzzle piece to remember her sister, Kayte Beddow, and show the promise of recovery. Beddow was 26 when she died in 2017.
“I thought I had an idea of what I originally wanted on the piece, but once I put it together, I started looking at a lot of things. I just kind of let it take me,” Cox said.
Simpson said he began the project wanting 57 pieces to mark the number of Portland’s overdose deaths in 2017, but through grants and encouragement from UNE, he expanded his vision.
He had also worked as an intern at Liberty Bay Recovery Center on Forest Avenue, and its owner and founder, Nate Cermelj, was happy to pitch in on the project.
“I support any sort of effort to get people on the right path, whether it is abstinence or harm reduction,” he said Dec. 6. “As much as recovery is about community and having the same message, every piece I saw was an individual take on the project.”
Simpson will exhibit the puzzle at UNE in May 2019, and is then ready to take the show on the road. Whether it is outdoors on the lawn as guerrilla theater or inside the State Capitol, Augusta will be one stop.
He also envisions visiting community recovery centers throughout Maine and hopes those who made pieces will step forward to talk about their work in gatherings.
Cox hopes the puzzle will be displayed at high schools, too.
Allenby says the project pieces together a vital message.
“We are people, and people don’t always get along,” she said. “But what I have learned is, don’t give up. I am just grateful on a daily basis I do not give up.”
David Harry can be reached at 780-9092 or dharry@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHarry8.
Glenn Simpson holds a puzzle piece made by Ashley Cox, whose sister died of substance use disorder in 2017, as his partner, Elaine Shamos, sifts through some of the 219 pieces contributed to his Pieces of Recovery puzzle.
Kathryn Allenby’s puzzle piece was designed by her emotions. “I let the process unfold, it was extremely healing,” she said Dec. 6.
Glenn Simpson said he never assembles his Pieces of Recovery puzzle the same way twice, but each time he does, he gets renewed messages of hope.
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