She was dropped off at convenience store in Monmouth County, hungry and broke and homeless, but still high from heroin she got "on credit" from dealers who knew she'd be back.
"I have 763 contacts in my phone and not one of those people would help me," said Lynda Saletta. "I burned every bridge -- with family, with friends."
Her new boyfriend, Jake, who asked that his last name not be used, would not let her into his house.
"I'd see it too many times," he said.
This was a few weeks ago.
She'd hit bottom. Again. And went to detox. Again. She's clean now, but has been clean before. She was clean for two years when her first child was born in 1992, then clean again – but on methadone -- when the second baby came in 1995.
But the father was a drug user, too, and violent, and her children were taken from her. That was another bottom.
Then Saletta was clean for almost seven years, working as a manicurist in a high-end salon.
"I did Patti Springsteen's nails. I did Heather Locklear's feet," she said.
But there was more violence in another relationship and "I met a guy with a pocketful of money who said 'Do you party?' and I thought, 'Why not?' "
