- by Anne Finlay- Stewart

We're sitting in Frog Ponds Café, a few yards from where Jeremy Woodley will be signing books this Saturday, and two hundred kilometers from where his story began. Sober and faithful for 19 years, Woodley has shared his story in “Jeremy, Jesus and the Beatles”.

He wrote it to let others know that whatever has you in its grip today, the future can be better.
“It can be done. And it can be done right here.”

The story includes some painful descriptions from his childhood among addicts, as well as a lovely dedication to his mother who died of a fentanyl overdose but is “no longer suffering”. His own trips down lonely, dark paths are sometimes hard to read, but his story is touchingly relatable as he speaks of the kindness and generosity he was shown even when he felt he was least deserving.

He started drinking when he was 14, and almost every other drug was part of the path.
He was frightened – he lost his job at Tim Horton's, even though his boss was good to him and tried to help him. He spent a couple of nights on the street, and slept in a friend's car. There were many attempts at sobriety,

One day – June 21, 2000 to be exact – Jeremy was able to say “I am not a street person. This is not me”, and he has not used alcohol, opiates, cocaine or cigarettes since.

Jeremy had never been to Owen Sound – he knew nothing about the community except what it said on a pamphlet he found in the Hamilton Detox. “G and B House, a residential support and recovery home for men who have substance abuse problems”. He stayed at G and B House for seven months, and went on to work there for seven years.

Another date figures prominently in Jeremy's story – December 17, 2004.
“From that moment on, it seemed like everything started to add up. I realized that God had been pursuing me the entire time! During all those years I had been drinking and staggering home, no one had ever jumped me. I hadn't ever been in a car with a drunk driver or had an accident.The Lord had had His hand on me my whole life. I just didn't know it until now.”

Jeremy is firmly home in the Owen Sound community now. He completed the PSW program at Georgian College and has his own company, Jeremy Woodley Care Services. He and his staff provide in-home care to elderly people and those with special needs. He is a member of South End Baptist Church.

“This is a strong community,” says Jeremy, “But a lot of young people don't feel hope. There has to be more – a stronger economy, more activities for young, single people that don't include alcohol.”

He smiles when he talks about the power of music. Why “Jeremy, Jesus ....and the Beatles”?
His first experience of the Beatles that he recalls as an adult was listening to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band while on an acid trip. They are his all time favourite band whose songs have been a great influence, he says, “speaking to me when life was good to me, and when life was not good to me.” Music is woven throughout this story of faith, hope and love.

Jeremy invites you to come for a coffee and a chat from 12 until 3, Saturday, February 23 at the Frog Ponds in downtown Owen Sound.