‘I just wanted the pain to go away’: Dickson County man who struggled with addiction for decades now helps others

DICKSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Just outside Ashland City, Montgomery Bell Park has become a safe haven for Bruce Hill.

“There was a time in my life when I could look out across something like this and I couldn’t see the beauty of it,” Hill said.

The serenity was unrecognizable.

“I started using when I was 11 years old. By the time I was 19, I was in prison,” Hill recalled.

At a young age, Hill’s life was fueled by drugs and crime. He would then be introduced to heroin.

“It’s going to make you feel good in the beginning then it’s going to steal everything you’ve ever had, including your life,” Hill said. “In 2016 on November 6th, there was nothing left in life. I was in a motel in Nashville and I remember looking out that window, it was afternoon, but it was the darkest day I’d ever seen in my life. And I had a bunch of heroin and I decided it was time to go.”

Not long after, first responders arrived.

“They couldn’t revive me, they couldn’t get a pulse, they got me to a hospital, they pronounced me [dead on arrival],” Hill said.

But what happened next was nothing short of a miracle.

“And this nurse, for whatever reason, she stuck her hand under the sheet, she found a faint pulse, and she went to holler, ‘This one’s alive.’ For about eight days, that nurse came to my room every morning and talked to me about God,” Hill said,

Determined to change his life, Hill relapsed a few weeks later. However, once he was back in rehab, he had a dream.

“And all I see was a mass of people and darkness, and that word, ‘recovery warriors,’ and from that moment, I set my sights on trying to figure out what this was all about,” Hill said.

From sky diving, to speaking events, to mentoring, Hill now works to help people fight their addiction through his non-profit Recovery Warriors.

In his most recent jump, Hill wanted to raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl.

“We recover out loud. I want people to know this is a great life…All my life, I just wanted to take. I didn’t know any better. Now I spend my life giving back,” Hill said.

And now going sober four years, Hill is celebrating his birthday at his sanctuary, Montgomery Bell Park

“I find life worth living today. I do,” Hill said.

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