Sarina was 11, then at Vista Maria until she turned 18

Sarina was 11, alone in a hospital bed for three days with a heart condition. From there the path ran to Vista Maria and stayed until she was 18.

On More Than Just Luck, she tells Greg Wier what those years felt like from the inside. A pack of instant ramen tasted, she says, like a meal at Benihana, which is a precise way of describing how small the comforts were. She also talks about losing her closest friend, Angelica, to what she alleges was institutional neglect. The hospital stay is the beginning. Aging out is the end. Everything between is the episode.

A plain pack of instant ramen tasted like a meal at Benihana.

Watch Voices Unmuted Podcast Series on More Than Just Luck YouTube

Three days alone at 11, with a heart condition, is already an abandonment. Vista Maria was the next placement, and it did not last a season. It lasted the rest of her childhood. Sarina's account is about daily indignities that teach a girl to treat a noodle packet as a luxury, and about a friendship that ended because, she says, the institution did not do the thing it existed to do.

Greg Wier hosts the hour as part of Voices Unmuted. He is the author of More Than Just Luck. Sarina is not summarizing a placement. She is walking the listener from a hospital bed to a facility in Dearborn Heights and then to 18, which is the age the system calls an exit whether the girl is ready or not.

A civil lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court in April 2026 named six plaintiffs who say they were abused as minors while living at Vista Maria between 2000 and 2025. More than 100 former residents have come forward this year. More Than Just Luck has documented more than 25 stories of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, unsafe conditions, and negligence at the facility.

Angelica is part of the record Sarina is willing to say out loud. So is the ramen. One is the tragedy. The other is the ordinary day. She is asking the listener to hold both.

Hosted by Greg Wier, the author of "More Than Just Luck," a no-nonsense, real-life memoir about ambition, betrayal and triumph, this episode is part of "Voices Unmuted." The series keeps each account at full length because a short clip leaves out the part that matters: what the guest says the place was supposed to be, and what she says it was instead. Sarina was 11, then at Vista Maria until she turned 18 is that account, written out so it can be read on its own.

End the Deadline on Justice for Child Abuse Survivors in Michigan.

Sign the Petition to Demand Change.