Lynn parenting program a boost for split families

LYNN – Michael Holmes took one too many pills for his anxiety one day, and the decision tore his family apart.His wife died a few months later, and officials with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families took his son away after police found Holmes passed out on the bed of a shelter where he and his family were living.”I get choked up, I miss him so much,” the Lynn resident said of his 9-year-old son, who has been apart from his father for more than a year.Today, Holmes has taken responsibility for his actions and hasn’t lost hope he will one day be reunited with his son. He attributes much of his new outlook on life to a parenting program at the Lynn Community Connection Coalition, which he and about a dozen other parents who have fallen on hard times graduated from on Saturday.”I can finally admit that I did misuse medications, and I own it and I can come to terms with that,” Holmes said after an emotional, tearful ceremony orchestrated by program director Pamela Freeman.The program provides weekly parenting classes for parents (and sometimes grandparents) who are either court-ordered to attend after DCF confiscated their children or who just need a little help getting their family life back on track.Freeman told Saturday’s graduates that no parent is perfect and that parenting is a tough job regardless of a family’s circumstances.”You should be proud of ourselves that you made it this far. How many times did we cry?” she said.Oneka Cole said she had never cried so hard in her life when state officials took away her 5- and 13-year-old boys after police charged her with an OUI.The single Lynn mother – her children’s father has been in jail for the past five years – said the Lynn Community Connection Coalition’s parenting class gave her tools to become the parent she always wanted to be.”I learned how to be a better person,” she said. ” ? In order to take care of your child, you have to nurture yourself first.”Cole loved the parenting class so much, Saturday was the second time she graduated from it. Within four months of her charge, she was reunited with her children.Freeman said that whether the graduates have their children back in their lives or are still fighting for them, Saturday’s graduation is the start of a new life filled with hope and recovery.”This doesn’t stop here,” she said. “This is just the beginning.”Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].