By Sonja Isger.
The Palm Beach Post. Posted Dec 24, 2019
Niki Tartal once lived on the streets of Palm Beach County, hopelessly addicted to drugs and alcohol. The Lake Worth Beach mom shares how her Christmas miracle unfolded, one step at time.
Niki Tartal’s Christmas story begins with Christmas past.
One in which the twentysomething was sleeping rough, just beyond Lake Worth Beach’s main streets, in abandoned apartments or a van fitted with an old mattress. It is a story of routinely tempting death by feeding a heroin addiction two, three or four times a day — an addiction several years in the making.
When others were making their lists and checking them twice, Niki’s Christmases were consumed by thoughts of acquiring something other than gifts.
“My only concern was whether or not my drug dealer was going to answer the phone.”
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