Much of Sheri Lynn Wiggins’ life was spent in a drug-induced haze.

“I was 24 years old and started working in clubs as a waitress and got into the wrong crowd,” Wiggins, 51, said. “I got into meth and cocaine, heavy into drugs.”

The 1984 graduate of Eufaula High School joined the Air Force and got married and had two daughters and left the military after six years.

Her first husband joined the Army and was stationed at Boulder City, Kan.

That’s where the road into the drug world began, she said.

It was 1992.

She began working in nightclubs and partying.

In 1993 she and her husband divorced.

“It was because of drugs,” she said.

Her daughters went to live with her mother in Vivian, west of Eufaula, and Wiggins went on a drug spree that lasted more than 20 years.

“I went to prison three times – 17 months the first time, 18 months the second time and three years the third time,” Wiggin said. “I have a long rap sheet.”

District Attorney Investigator Rob Rumble has known Wiggins, formerly Harris, for most of his 17 years with the DA’s office.

“She was one of the first cases I worked,” he said. “She had one of the most negative attitudes of anyone I worked with. She wanted to be left alone. She hated law enforcement.”

Early in his career, when he first met Wiggins, he was an officer with the District Attorney’s Drug Task Force.

Over the years he would run into her from time to time while working drug cases. Once he was the arresting officer. That was on Aug. 19, 2002.

“I gave him a good cussing. I did not like him at all,” Wiggins said.

She was arrested again on Dec. 18, 2006 and charged with possession of CDS and public intoxication.

On March 28, 2007 she was offered an alternative, prison or drug court.

Drug court gives addicts a chance to go to rehabilitation and to get clean.

She rejected the offer and was sentenced to six years in prison. She served three years.

On June 15, 2012, again on the streets, she was charged with distribution of a controlled substance.

Again facing prison time, she was again offered the chance to go to drug court and get into a rehabilitation program.

This time, she accept the offer and began rehab in 2013.

Rumble, who worked as a drug court compliance officer part time, has seen a lot of addicts.

When Wiggins agreed to rehab, he was skeptical.

She admits she was a hard case.

But he made an agreement with her.

If she stayed clean and sober for five years, he would cook dinner for her entire family.

“I told her I’m not convinced but I would gladly cook dinner for the whole family if I was wrong,” he said.

On Sunday, Oct. 21, Rumble donned an apron and cooked steak dinners for Wiggins, her husband of three months, Jeffrey, her two daughters and their partners and two granddaughters and a grandson.

It was a five-year celebration of sobriety for Wiggins.

The celebration took place on the deck of Rumble’s father’s residence in Arrowhead Estates near Canadian in Pittsburg County.

The sun was out. The weather was warm. The view from the deck was of Lake Eufaula, stretching for miles.

It was a perfect setting for a woman whose life had been spent in the dark drug world.

She and Rumble, once standing on opposite sides of the fence, are now friends.

“I drop by to see him at his office all the time,” she said.

She used to hate him, but no more.

“He saved my life. He made an agreement with me and stuck by it,” she said. “He told me he would do what he has done today.”

Since going through rehab, she has been clean.

“Sheri is proof that if she can stop using drugs, then anyone can stop if they set their mind to it,” Rumble said.

Wiggins is determined to walk a straight line.

“I don’t even drink. I don’t do anything but babysit my granddaughters,” she said.

One of the prime motivations for getting clean was her daughters.

“They were not in my life and I needed them in my life. The only way to do that was to get clean and sober. I had to do something to change my life. The urges for drugs are gone. I stay away from people, places and things I should stay away from,” she said.

Her future seems bright, as bright as the day the family basked in as they celebrated her sobriety.

Her plans?

“To stay clean and sober; to be a good wife and mother and grandmother; and to be a good citizen. That may not seem like a lot but it is, considering where I came from,” she said.