Victoria woman's appearance in Netflix series after experiencing addiction and homelessness inspires hope
When Carey Oakes embraced her first guitar, she couldn’t have imagined how dynamic the soundtrack to her life would become.
“I’m plucking away at it like it’s a stand-up bass,” Carey smiles about the picture of her as a little girl holding a big guitar.
“It’s much too large for me.”
By the time it would have been the right size, Carey had experienced too many wrong things.
When she was 12, instead of finding comfort in playing guitar, a friend suggested she find solace in doing heroin.
“She said, ‘This will make all of the scary things go away and if it doesn’t it will make it so you don’t care about it anymore,” Carey recalls. “It worked for a lot of years.”
By the time Carey realized it wasn’t working, she’d endured more than a decade of addiction and homelessness.
“This used to be my home for many years,” Carey says, gesturing to a shopping cart full of garbage bags.
“It was piled high.”
After Carey experienced her lowest low, she says her friends forced her to detox.
“They also handed me a guitar,” she says. “That’s how I learned my first three chords.”
Carey says she survived by busking and dumpster diving. After living in a tent along a busy street, she was offered a room in a temporary housing.
“I turned that into an opportunity,” she says. “Rather than a slum.”
The stability allowed Carey to focus on writing songs and finding work, including a job as an extra on the filmed-in-Victoria series Maid. The Netflix drama struck a real-life chord.
“The scene got to me a little bit emotionally.”
Carey says the raw reaction prompted a real offer for more screen time.
“I said, ‘Let’s go make some TV,’” Carey smiles. “They were so impressed by that they offered me a full actor’s contract.”
Although she earned a close-up and an apprentice membership with the actors union (which will make her eligible for more professional work), Carey says the best part of appearing on the series was the feedback from her family.
“It was nice to have my family see me do something (and be proud),” Carey says, fighting back tears.
“It’s been a while.”
Carey says she followed-up her “Maid” appearance with her first speaking role in a short film.
It’s part of a personal transformation that now includes supporting other members of her community to find creative work and rewrite a more hopeful soundtrack for their lives, too.
“Why not just continue (and) lift them up?” she says, smiling. “Then at least you have a ladder to climb up, right?”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Young people 'tortured' if stolen vehicle operations fail, Montreal police tell MPs
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
'It was joy': Trapped B.C. orca calf eats seal meat, putting rescue on hold
A rescue operation for an orca calf trapped in a remote tidal lagoon off Vancouver Island has been put on hold after it started eating seal meat thrown in the water for what is believed to be the first time.
Man sets self on fire outside New York court where Trump trial underway
A man set himself on fire on Friday outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump's historic hush-money trial was taking place as jury selection wrapped up, but officials said he did not appear to have been targeting Trump.
Sask. father found guilty of withholding daughter to prevent her from getting COVID-19 vaccine
Michael Gordon Jackson, a Saskatchewan man accused of abducting his daughter to prevent her from getting a COVID-19 vaccine, has been found guilty for contravention of a custody order.
Mandisa, Grammy award-winning 'American Idol' alum, dead at 47
Soulful gospel artist Mandisa, a Grammy-winning singer who got her start as a contestant on 'American Idol' in 2006, has died, according to a statement on her verified social media. She was 47.
She set out to find a husband in a year. Then she matched with a guy on a dating app on the other side of the world
Scottish comedian Samantha Hannah was working on a comedy show about finding a husband when Toby Hunter came into her life. What happened next surprised them both.
B.C. judge orders shared dog custody for exes who both 'clearly love Stella'
In a first-of-its-kind ruling, a B.C. judge has awarded a former couple joint custody of their dog.
Saskatoon police to search landfill for remains of woman missing since 2020
Saskatoon police say they will begin searching the city’s landfill for the remains of Mackenzie Lee Trottier, who has been missing for more than three years.
Shivering for health: The myths and truths of ice baths explained
In a climate of social media-endorsed wellness rituals, plunging into cold water has promised to aid muscle recovery, enhance mental health and support immune system function. But the evidence of such benefits sits on thin ice, according to researchers.