Posted on 03/29/2017 7:15:49 PM PDT by TigerClaws
Isabella Marie Sammartano
With deep sadness we mourn the sudden passing of our dear daughter Isabella (Bella) Sammartano, age 20, who succumbed to her battle with addiction and died from a heroin overdose in our home on March 24, 2017. Showing strength, determination, and a love for life, Bella lived clean for the last 16 months before her sudden relapse last week, succumbing to this terrible disease, now an epidemic and taking far too many of our loved ones from us every day.
Bella will be remembered as intelligent and full of love, conviction, empathy, and with a sense of humor well beyond her years. Bella loved her family first, and here at home was where she felt safe and truly loved. Her empathy for others knew no bounds, and Bella was always quick to come to the defense of others. Bella loved the outdoors, the woods, and all the animals that lived there. She loved bones, fossils, rocks, feathers, mushrooms, and was generally in reverence of everything in the natural world. Bella could be found exploring the woods, observing nature, and reflecting on the science of things with a passion. Bella was also a talented artist who though secretive and modest about her abilities, was occasionally proud to share her amazing sketches with her family or closest friends.
After graduating from Kirkwood High School in 2014, Bella soon found herself struggling with the disease of addiction, and entered a number of recovery facilities in Minnesota, California, and Missouri, before returning to her Kirkwood home in 2016 and to her supportive and loving family. Here she attended St. Louis Community College at Meramec receiving the highest grades, making Dean’s List last semester, and where Bella was preparing herself for a future in the biological sciences. Bella had dreams. She spoke of graduate school and of working in a lab someday, and all of this seemed possible until her life was tragically cut short last week.
Bella is survived by her devoted and loving mom and dad, Christy Hathaway Sammartano and Dan Sammartano, and her adoring sister Francesca (Frankie) Sammartano, all of Kirkwood, Missouri. She also leaves behind her loving grandmother Carolyn Clark (Grandma Lyn) of Turners Falls, Massachusetts, and a loving and supportive family of Aunts, Uncles and cousins in Missouri and Massachusetts. These include her Aunt Valery Griffin (Uncle Pete) of Gill, MA, uncles Michael Hathaway (Katherine Mitchell) and Matthew Hathaway (Jessica Hathaway), of St. Louis, MO, and her uncle Chris Sammartano (Ann Fitzgerald) of Ipswich, MA. She also leaves her cousins Lexi Griffin of Gill, MA, Cooper Sammartano of Ipswich, MA, and Lucy, Romy and Ivy Hathaway all of St. Louis, MO. She also leaves behind her loving godmother Missy (Michel) Lewis, and “Aunt” Angela (Buckley) Martin, both of St. Louis. Bella is also survived by a lifetime of schoolmates, close friends, and people she came to know in and out of recovery.
Visitation: A Visitation will be held for the public at Bopp Chapel in Kirkwood, on Thursday, March 30, 2017 between 4:00 and 8:00 PM. A private service will be held in Massachusetts for close family.
Bella was a strong-willed woman choosing to fight the addiction her own way, but who would ultimately succumb to this terrible disease. It’s her family’s hope that her passing will bring awareness to heroin addiction as a treatable and organic disease, and to drug proliferation in our communities and homes. In honor of Bella’s short and wonderful life, please consider a donation to the Harris House Foundation, harrishousestl.org.
I respect her family for sharing their daughter's story as a warning to others.
Sad. RIP.
She died because she was stupid.
I hate when people try to sugar coat things.
L
If I can't stop myself from using a hammer on my knee-caps, that is a bad habit—not a “disease.”
The cheap heroin epidemic comes straight out of Mexico.
Their military, politics, local cops are mostly bought and paid for.
heroin use and epidemics come out of the brain of individual users who make decisions to use the drug.
Please do not keep your opinions on heroin addicts to yourself.
You are an expert witness who can enlighten others.
Those who traffic heroin are enemies of the nation and they should be executed. If anybody thinks that legalizing this poison will make things better they are deluding themselves.
addiction is many times not simple to overcome, but is doable with Jesus. Family and friends can at times help and at times enable or hinder.
Just about all of us battle some form of addiction or other. I’ve relapsed on addictive bad habits so many times I cannot count. Jesus is the only constant to when I stay on course.
My bet was that she wasn’t stupid at all. My bet was that she was bright. My bet is that she lost her way. Further, my bet is that, bright or dull, wise or stupid, she left behind people who loved her and are devastated by her loss.
That is, if I were a betting man...
Truly unfortunate, but I differ with those that call these conditions a disease. I believe it does a disservice to society to label addiction a disease. It allows for abdication of responsibility for what amounts (at least at the onset) to a personal choice. Society has been conditioned that disease is something inflicted on persons through external forces against ones will. Addiction is not such a beast. Once past the drug usage to remain drug free becomes an inner struggle of strength or weakness. I’m sorry for this girl’s passing and her family’s pain.
I watched “Intervention” and they have addicts on there who are using the product while on-camera. Do they get a waiver from the DEA or something?
Drug addiction s NOT a disease any more than a rapist sex addiction or a serial murderers blood addiction. It is an evil lack of control and discipline that an only be addressed with harsh punishment. I have lived with the loser bastards in my life. They are no damned good. They didn’t catch a germ in the air. The fell down on low character and ruined their own damned lives.I wouldn’t spend any money or time on these worthless people. I don’t care!!Get off this “disease” crap.That is put out to try to get your money fopr parasites who feed off those losers.
The cheap heroin epidemic comes straight out of Mexico.
Their military, politics, local cops are mostly bought and paid for.
___________________
Open borders kills people.
Deliberately making oneself more stupid than one was born is a very poor survival strategy. We see that evidenced here.
Put poison into your body and you’ll very likely die from it.
L
Right said, Eric.
Mexico is a cancer that pumps crime, drugs and dependency into the U.S.
I will also blame the medical community for driving this by being so easy with giving out prescriptions for opioids, lots of innocent Americans have fallen prey to addiction.
I was given a powerful opiate to manage pain after only a compound broke ankle. I never took any, but the very next time we had house work done, they "disappeared".
>> In honor of Bella’s short and wonderful life ...
Yeah, right.
I really don’t like the fact “addiction” is now a disease....
I think it plays into the idea something you can cure verses something you overcome...
I understand there are psychological aspects to an addiction, but it isn’t a disease...
It does a disservice to people who actually have a disease....
You can’t overcome MS, but they might find a cure one day...
I guess they left out the part about her favorite habit of putting her family through hell, repeatedly.
Addiction wouldn’t be so bad if the addict were the only one who was hurt by it.
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