Straight-A student in high school, four-year letterman in golf, Eagle Scout, became a Rush Limbaugh conservative when he traveled to DC in 8th grade with a civics class. Graduated with business degree from university. Got a good job at a major bank. He had it all.
Except he was a heroin addict. And later, a whatever addict. Cocaine, meth, crack, etc. Extremely physically addicting stuff. He got addicted in college and graduated but he had set his fate then and there and there was no turning back. His life was downhill from there on.
In and out of jail and probation and court hearings and drug-testing, lost multiple jobs, lost his two kids. His girlfriend, the mother of the kids, was a druggie too. She died in a one car, roll over accident. She was high on something. Luckily the two kids were not with her at the time.
He was a smart kid, too smart for his own good as they say. My wife and I tried everything to intervene and help but nothing ever stuck. By the time admitted to us that he was an addict he was an adult and there was little we could force him to do after that. He sincerely tried to stop many times but it is nearly impossible to overcome the physical draw those hard drugs have on your body. He had hepatitis-C, bad teeth and too many other medical issues for a young man. All from the drugs.
He died by himself in an apartment with drug paraphernalia and a white powder near him. More than likely he died from drug-induced heart failure. No autopsy but the toxicology reports will take a long time to get the results.
We had been estranged from him for sometime but he reached out to my wife in December to say he had a job and was clean for almost a year. But he also had a 9 month old baby and with her mother, his girlfriend. But his good intentions were not meant to be. He left the baby and the mother alone when he died. They are living with us for the time being.
A sad end to a once bright future. May Ben Rest In Peace finally.
I am very sorry for your terrible loss. May the Lord comfort and console your family and grant the repose of Ben’s soul. I will pray that you all be reunited again someday in Heaven forever.
Sorry for your pain. I have known parents of kids who seemed to take a wrong turn in life and never could get them back. It’s hard not to blame yourself but the best any parent can do is raise them the right way and then turn them loose.
What a terrible loss, but in some ways it probably seems a blessing, his trials on this earth are over.
My nephew died this way, alone in his apartment with his drugs. His mother found him after three days of no contact. I can’t imagine the horror and I can’t talk about it with her because she doesn’t want anyone to know. She tells everyone he died of an aneurysm. She doesn’t know I know and I’ve been told by my brother that if she finds out I know how he died she won’t speak to me again, that she’s already cut off contact with her only sister because her sister found out the cause of death. Very strange. Kudos to you for speaking out.
I’ve come to the conclusion that when our time here is done, then we go. I can’t come up with any other explanation. Those people who died on the bridge collapse, the children in the school who were shot, it was just their time. But it’s just so damn hard.