'I started drinking at 11'
"I hung out with an older crowd and started drinking when I was just 11," Wood said. "At 12, I ran away from home with my stepfather's brother, George, who was 17.
"He provided the pot, beer and Jack Daniels that kept us giggling as we spent every day and night dodging the law.
"Running the streets, smoking pot and drinking was pretty much all we did every single day. It was fun. At 13, I was pregnant, and the schools didn't want to know me then. Our first baby, Amy, was born when I was 14 and we found a place of our own. We lived on welfare and handouts from George's parents."
Wood gave birth to another child before she married at 16. She was pregnant for the wedding, but the baby only lived 17 days. Two more pregnancies followed.
"I was only 20 but I had given birth five times," she said. "My husband used to beat me and sometimes take off with my welfare check and leave us with no food.
"From 18 on, I smoked pot every day and tried LSD a few times. My favorite drink was Southern Comfort and Mountain Dew. I would give the children their breakfast, see them off to school and smoke pot. Most evenings I would go to bars, play pool and hustle for drinks and money."
In 1998 she went with a boyfriend to see friends in Missouri and visited an isolated farm.
Penny had never heard of methamphetamine but discovered that her hosts cooked it up in industrial quantities. Unaware of its addictive quality, she tried. She didn't go home for a year.
'Our whole lives were meth'
"They told me if I tried it I would lose weight and stay awake for a long time so I could party even more," she said. "It was like I was walking on clouds. Nothing bothered me and nobody could get into my world."
Sex with her boyfriend was "awesome" on the drug, she said, but she soon needed to do more to get high. She began helping to manufacture and sell the drug, using a horse trough to mix large quantities.
"It was an incredibly easy way to make money," Wood said. "For an investment of $40 for the ingredients, you could make $3,000 worth of dope."
Wood smoked, snorted and ate the drug to get high.
"Between highs I just slept," she said. "At my worst, I would go to bed with a line ready to snort when I opened my eyes, a light bulb made as a pipe to smoke it, a piece to eat and a Budweiser for breakfast.
"Our whole lives were making, dealing and using meth."
'I am the butt of jokes'
Wood returned home for her mother's funeral and was arrested for possessing a marijuana pipe and fined $75.
Four years later when Wood was caught manufacturing methamphetamine and agreed to let her photographs be used, she was assured that her name would not be used. But that didn't mean much in Pekin -- population 33,000.
As she sat in her living room festooned with plastic flowers, ornaments and the paraphernalia of a recovering addict -- Bible, framed prayers -- Wood insisted: "Some days I think prison would have been a lot easier.
"I was hoping to get a job, but everyone knows my past and they won't give me a chance," she said. "My disabilities because of the years I did meth include a chronic cough, so waitressing is out of the question. My lungs are so damaged that I have difficulty walking up a flight of stairs."
Tending bar is out because of the risk of falling back into addiction. Janitorial jobs in schools or nursing homes are out because of her conviction.
"I thought people would want to employ me because I've acknowledged my past and I've changed, but it's totally the opposite," she said. "I don't go out much any more because people whisper about me and point fingers.
"I am the butt of jokes on radio and even when I go to my probation office -- where my picture is on the wall -- people snicker. At 42, I have to face up to the fact that being a poster girl has not improved my life at all. The notoriety has been very damaging and if I could change that I would."
Her first grandchild, Dustin, now 12, poses with her for pictures. She hardly resembles the woman holding him as a baby.
"I've paid for my mistakes," she said. "I have 10 grandkids, and I don't want them to suffer. Other kids tease them about what I've done. I didn't expect this level of public humiliation."
'Disfiguration is extreme'
After police in London wrote asking to use her picture, she replied spelling out all her disabilities.
Hello. I wanted to thank you for asking permission to use my photo as so many don't. This drug is evil. There is no other way to describe it.
Not only the outer disfiguration is extreme, the effects it has on your insides are worse.
Young (old) people need to know that maybe for a minute you'll be skinny and full of energy, but the long term effects are . . . I have no word to describe, but here is my story for young people to consider. It takes everything I have to walk a flight of stairs. My lungs are destroyed.
I have no control over my bladder -- I pee my pants all the time. I can't take a bowel movement without a laxative. . . .
And all this is just the beginning. . . . I want no pity, I just want those young people and old to know what this stuff does to your insides as well as the outward appearance.
Sincerely Penny S. Wood
Stewart Umholtz, the Tazewell County state's attorney who offered her the plea bargain, said he has received e-mails from all over the world seeking permission to use Wood's photograph.
"We felt the poster campaign would help her in her rehabilitation, and we agreed not to use her name," Umholtz said. "But it got out after people approached her to find out more."
'Nothing to show for it'
Today, Wood faces a 9 p.m. curfew, required community service, daily visits by law enforcement officers, random urine tests, the threat of prison time if she strays and occasional raids by police. A few weeks ago, a drug enforcement team with machine guns surrounded her house, burst in, searched her house and found nothing.
Her daughter, Iva, served 2-1/2 years in prison for methamphetamine-related crimes. Her son, Timmy, is behind bars for manufacturing meth, a craft Wood said he learned from her.
"After all that has happened, I still hope that by cooperating something good will happen," Wood said. "Between us we have nothing to show for it.
"I was overwhelmed when I heard from the British police. I want people to know that it ends in destruction, jail or death."
