EVERETT – Jeromy Williamson thought he was dead.
He had been up for 14 days and hadn’t eaten for five days when he and a friend decided to siphon anhydrous ammonia, a coolant and commonly used ingredient in methamphetamine, out of the side of a camper trailer.
The coolant accidentally sprayed onto his face. Every time he took a breath, it burned his throat and lungs. After eight years as a meth addict, it had come to this. Dan Bates / The Herald
When he finally got to the emergency room, he made a promise.
“I promised that if my health was restored to me, I would devote my life to God,” he said.
On Saturday, a year after he made that promise, Williamson carried a 110-pound wooden cross through Everett. He was marking the first 365 days of his new life, which includes God but doesn’t include meth.
His hands were chained together. He was dressed in robes and sandals and had artificial blood smeared across his forehead. He even wore a crown of thorns he bought at a Christian bookstore.
Trailed by a small group of friends and family, Williamson carried the cross from the Cookbook Restaurant about two miles south on Broadway to Stadium Flowers.
People driving by honked and waved. Others yelled and gave him the finger.
“I bet they thought that I was ridiculous or intimidating. I think some people might have been offended,” Williamson said. “But it all has to do with my faith. I watched Jesus Christ pull me out of a life of chains and bondage and addiction.”
As he struggled to carry the cross, staring at the sidewalk in front of him, he thought about his eight years of meth addiction and living on the streets and in drug houses.
He thought about the broken relationships, and how much he’d hurt the people he loved. He thought about how very far he’d come in a year, something he attributes solely to God.
“Thinking about all the burdens that he carried for me made me want to carry one myself,” Williamson said.
That day in the emergency room, hospital officials gave him a list of phone numbers for treatment centers. The one he chose to call was a Christian-based spiritual treatment center in Tukwila.
For months, he led a rigorous schedule, studying the Bible and doing hard labor restoring churches in the Seattle area.
He returned to live with his mother, and one day wandered into Everett’s Life Changes Ministry. There, he volunteered his time doing odd jobs helping put together the ministry’s new location at 2820 Hewitt Ave.
He found his calling in life there, reaching out to and serving “the homeless, the brokenhearted and the drug-addicted.”
“It’s kind of right up my avenue,” he said.
It was at Life Changes that he met Sarah Hoff, the daughter of his pastor, Judy Hoff. The two are now engaged to be married in August.
His fiance walked with him Saturday and said the whole group wanted people to see them and think about having God in their lives.
Though Williamson’s appearance may have had some shock value, it was necessary to get people’s attention, she said.
“In today’s society, everything is extreme. What you see on TV and allow kids to listen to on the radio is extreme,” she said. “The message that we’re trying to get across is extreme, because today’s society is extreme. We have to be the ones to reach out and grab their attention or they won’t ever see it.”
Williamson’s mother, Kristina Marquardt, walked with him, too. She was ecstatic that he had turned his life around.
“I feel very strongly that Jeromy is going to use what he went through to help other people, and not only help them, but help them come to Christ,” she said. “Through my eyes and his eyes, that’s where they need to be.”
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.
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