Benjamin Asher Wilkey

We had to say goodbye to our sweet brother, Benjamin Wilkey, on Monday night. This is incredibly tragic and painful for our family, and it has left us all feeling empty and lost. Ben was just 27 years old. He loved his family, he was one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, and he was full of life. Addiction does not discriminate against age, race, gender or social class. It is killing our children and young people and ripping families apart. I realize that most people would leave this part out, but I’m sick of ignoring it. I want to expose it for what it is. It’s nasty, and it kills, steals, and destroys the ones affected by it. Ben, we love you. You made an everlasting impact on those who knew you. You will never be forgotten and we will honor your memory forever. This YouTube video was 7 years ago when Ben had gotten clean of drugs and alcohol for a period time. He discusses his path to addiction and how he had then gotten clean. The local paper from our hometown of Columbus, Georgia interviewed him. It’s absolutely heartbreaking for me to watch it now, but shows the power addiction takes over a person’s life. Also, it’s just nice hearing my baby brother’s voice one last time. I’ve always been an advocate for addiction recovery because of my experiences with my brothers and husband. If you thought I talked about it a lot before, you can imagine how much I’ll be talking about it now. Now it’s claimed Ben’s life and left us with a void that can never be filled....like a leg kicked out from under a table, our family will never stand the same way again. He was irreplaceable. 💔