I'm Amazed That I Have Any Tears Left

Friends and family. Now that hard part is seeing kids of friends and friends of my kids go that way.

I've seen it in family and in friends and neighbors too. With friends, it's somehow more shocking because it was a hidden thing. In 2016, my wife & I won a radio contest for some G&R tickets. We even got a free upgrade in our seats. Lenny Kravitz stole the show. On our way back home, we stopped at the 24hr Walmart. For some reason, I wanted to check Facebook as we went through the door. That's when I saw a post from our friend's dad, also a friend, that at the age of 35, she didn't wake up that day. In hindsight, I could see things like the weight loss but, you never really know in the moment. There are just so many lives I know that were ruined by drug addiction. I also will never forget a neighbor kid who had physical and mental birth defects due to his mother's drug abuse. When he was a toddler, his father overdosed. When he was 10ish, his mother overdosed. My wife's brother is the most recent family we put in the ground due to drugs. Drugs are insidious. They tell people that they can control and get away with things that they most certainly cannot.

My brother-in-law was nearly 40 when he tried meth, and then within a couple years he was dead from it. My stepson helped clean out the apartment of a friend he went through middle and high school with after he died. I don't have use for much of anything drug related, as I also had a history in the 70s and 80s. Luckily I was able to see my way out where many do not.