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For years, Donna Kivlin's bright blue eyes, her judgment and her life were dulled by her addiction to painkillers.
At one point, the married mother of three had a nine-page criminal record, mostly for larceny. She stole from family, friends and strangers.
But now her pill-popping days are over due to her continued hard work, the rock-solid support of her second husband, Bob, and her three children, and the intensive help of Ayer District Court's Drug Court.
Drug Court is an intensive, hands-on program is a boot camp for addicts who have been convicted of a crime, providing them with intense supervision and counseling with the goal of completing program steps. It's not easy. The program takes at least a year to complete. Lowell District Court has also recently begun its own Drug Court.
When participants "graduate'' they are drug-free and now have the tools to deal with life, hopefully without returning to drugs or alcohol.
After Kivlin's July 18, 2013 drug court graduation, her defense attorney, Susan Edgett, gave Kivlin a special gift: Kilvin's nine-page record, torn into pieces, with parts put in a picture frame. That frame hangs in Kivlin's Littleton home as a reminder of how far she has traveled.
When asked about Kivlin's success, Edgett said, Kivlin has had her ups and downs, "but she made it. I'm proud of her.''
