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LEILA FADEL, HOST:
It's Friday and time for StoryCorps. Irene Montoya is the owner of Sunflower trucking in Cheyenne, Wyo. She drives a dump truck alongside construction and road crews. She's also raising her 14-year-old son, Gianni. But 15 years ago, her life looked very different. Irene was addicted to methamphetamines. She came to StoryCorps with her son to talk about how becoming a mother was the turning point in her life.
IRENE MONTOYA: When I first had you, I was so scared that you deserved to be with, like, a better mom. There was a time when you were little, and we ended up in a pretty bad apartment. Like, we had cockroaches, mice, bed bugs, and then the ceiling caved in. It was terrible. I didn't know what to do. So we were just driving around 'cause I didn't have nowhere to go with you. We slept that night in the car. And when you woke up in the back in your car seat, I looked in the rearview mirror, and you were the happiest little baby. You just were with your mom. That's all you needed. I knew that I never wanted to live that way ever again. I threw my meth pipe in this dumpster, and it shattered. The spell was broken. I wanted you to just remember me going to work, you going to school and then us going home, making dinner, and that's how life was. So it was up to me to change.
GIANNI BOOTH: What's something you wish you had known at that time in your life?
MONTOYA: That everything was going to be all right 'cause sometimes people just need to hear that. We ended up getting out of the bad apartment into a good one.
GIANNI: I just remember pretty recently after we moved in, you made me SpaghettiOs, and we watched "Hunting Bigfoot" on TV, and I only really remember I felt loved. I felt safe.
MONTOYA: That was my dream. I remember one time I worked 14 hours, and I was covered in diesel and asphalt, and I got home from work, and you were tiny - like, 5. And you made a potato in the shape of a heart and put it on my hamburger patty, because you knew when I got home from work, I was just going to go straight to bed. I wasn't going to eat. You're pretty amazing, son.
GIANNI: Thank you for everything.
MONTOYA: You know, I wanted to be that mom - own my own company, buy us a house and to go camping. Do you remember when we bought the camper? And it was complete junk, and the belt melted and flew off.
GIANNI: I remember that. And then the air conditioner almost fell on me.
MONTOYA: (Laughter) Yep.
GIANNI: I'm thankful that even if it's not looking great, you still work hard.
MONTOYA: You're welcome. I'm proud of you.
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FADEL: Irene Montoya just celebrated 13 years of sobriety. Her son, Gianni Booth, is hoping to become a diesel mechanic someday to work on trucks like one his mother drives. Their conversation is archived at the Library of Congress. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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