Randolph Woman Thanks Officer Who Set Her On Path To Recovery
RANDOLPH (CBS)- Eight years ago, Joanne Batson was in the throes of addiction.
One night, she was in a Randolph store with her two year old daughter, and barely able to stand. The clerk called police. When Officer Steve Morse showed up, he took Joanne to his cruiser.
But instead of taking her to lockup, he took the young mom and her daughter to her aunt's house. But on the way, more importantly, he talked to her.
"But the one thing that he said that really stuck out was he said I had to start making some better choices," Joanne said Thursday, now sober for eight years. "I would definitely say he had a hand in saving my life. Had I kept going down the road I was going down, would've ended up dead."
On Thursday, Joanne showed up at the Randolph Police Department to say thank you to the officer who put her on the right path all those years ago.
But the humble officer didn't know what to say. "This story isn't about me as far as I'm concerned," said Morse. "I didn't do anything special."
But Joanne sees it differently, and Thursday presented the officer with her 8-year sobriety medallion…as a show of appreciation, but also, to let him know he made a difference.
"I didn't really do that much," he said. "I gave her a random act of kindness, and it just happened to click that time."