The National Addiction Memorial honors the loved ones we’ve lost.

Tommy’s addiction started with pain pills. When he couldn’t get them anymore he started snorting heroine. He fought hard and did stop using. He went to school and got his CDL to drive tractor trailers. He was doing so good. He and his girlfriend went out to dinner to celebrate his new job. They wound up drinking alcohol and got very drunk. They must have decided to buy cocaine. They were both found dead in their bedroom. It was not cocaine, it was 100 percent fentanyl. They knew about fentanyl and would never have used it. Whoever sold that to them didn’t care that it would kill them. My heart is broken.

My son, Kevin, was our second child and first boy. He grew up in a middle class family with his sister and two younger brothers. He loved the outdoors. He went camping, fishing, and hiking everyday, weather permitting, with his dad and siblings. Kevin excelled at ice hockey! His struggle with addiction started in his late 20’s and he died shortly after his 30th birthday. We are still working everyday to continue on after losing him.

Jonathan lost his mom to breast cancer when he was 11 and always felt like he had a hole in his heart. Jonathan’s smile could light up the room when he came in. He loved hanging out with his brother and nieces. He never thought that his problem was bad enough for treatment. He bounced from one drug to another until heroin finally took his life at 18.

He lived each day to the fullest and wasn't afraid to tell anyone how much he loved me. Waking up in the middle of the night just to tell me one more time that he loved me. That is one thing that I miss the most. He was so proud to be having our son.  I never thought Jay would only have 5 wks as a father before the day we lost jay. That day changed my whole life. 

Stephen was a kind and loving man, his addiction started in his early 20s and he was sober for a long time, but then he decided to do a bag and that one bag killed him. I miss everything about him, his voice, his jokes, and seeing him with his son. But most of all I miss his nightly text “I love you mom, goodnight talk to you tomorrow."

She was a very beautiful and special young lady who touched hearts of many that crossed her path. She was a very loving sister and daughter and not to mention a great aunt "rainy" to her nieces and nephews. She struggled with addiction to opiates and in the end she just couldn't handle life's struggles anymore and it ended up breaking her. It not only ended up breaking her in the end and she became a child of God that day, but it also hurt the ones she left behind. She is a beautiful soul that is hard to describe. She had a heart of gold and loved hard with all her heart. She is one of many who are unfortunate in the end but know she's also many who are looking down on us who suffer from addiction and she's my guardian angel as well as for many other family and friends. R.I.P. our beautiful angel, "rainy". It's not goodbye it's, "I'll see you later."

Christopher was a handsome man, very caring, very quiet, a man of few words. He was an amazing father to his 19 month old twins. Chris loved the beach and he loved to fish. Growing up he loved sports and he was the starting pitcher for his high school baseball team. I miss his smile, I miss hearing him make his cup of coffee in the kitchen, I miss him bumming my cigarettes even though he had his own. I just miss him so much I can’t even look at his pictures. I find a little bit of comfort knowing that he is with his brother. He fought so hard but in the end the demons won!!!

Joseph was handsome and caring with an infectious smile. Everyone loved him who met him. He had so much love, especially for his family. He loved everyone and never judged. I miss his smile, taking the remote control from me, and bumming my cigarettes. Joseph struggled for years. We did everything we could for him but unfortunately god had other plans for him. In the end the demons won. I miss him so much....

Cody was 27. He was handsome and charismatic. He had a huge presence and everyone loved him. Cody was a born leader and collected hundreds of friends in his short life all who miss him terribly.
He was in recovery from opiates for over 4 years when he was diagnosed with kidney stones and Percocet was prescribed. He was a union painter and was able to keep his addiction hidden for quite some time. Once the addiction began to spin out of control he lost his job and nearly lost his marriage. He tried for the last 10 months of his life to break free but because insurance covered treatment is insufficient, he would quickly relapse. Unfortunately, his last relapse resulted in his death at a sober living home. We miss him so much but we desire to see treatment improve and will continue to fight for others in Cody’s name.

Our daughter was a beautiful person inside and out who was funny and had a great sense of humor. We have so many memories of things she did that still make us laugh to this day.

She was a fish out of water and loved to swim. She loved going on vacations with her family. She loved animals and loved dressing up our dogs in costumes at Halloween. She loved Justin Bieber and saw him 3 times in concert. She was excited that she had tickets to see him a 4th time. She passed 2 months before that concert was to take place.

She was a recent highschool graduate and a talented young lady who sang and performed solos in her church and school Varsity choir. She had the voice of an angel and was also a talented trumpet player.

Our daughter didn't suffer from a long term addiction but lost her life after mixing multiple drugs while out with her best friend one evening. The combination of cocaine, benzodiazepines and a strong prescription opioid painkiller ended her young life almost instantly. My last chat message with her was that she was to move back home with us the following weekend. She never made it back home.

We will never be the same again without her but know that we will all be reunited again with her soon someday. Like most of her family she became a bible believing Christian at a young age and her friends would say she was never afraid to voice her beliefs around them.

Ronny was kind, funny, and talented.
And we miss him deeply.

Matthew was caring, funny and could light up a room with his smile. He suffered with depression from his bipolar and started turning to drugs to self medicate!
Matthew loved to watch sports as well as play them. He always loved to make his friends laugh! We miss our son and brother so much!

Blake was my firstborn. He always had a big heart and would help out with the elderly family members. He absolutely loved his nephew, Benton. He would come over and spend quality time with him a lot. Blake always made me laugh. He was very thoughtful, and he always made me proud to call him my son.

My sister Amie struggled a lot with her addiction. But when we were kids she was playful and fun. I miss her so much.

Alec lost his battle with addiction on January 8, 2019. He was an amazing young man. He was fun-loving, smart and so many more amazing qualities. He is missed terribly by myself as well as his sisters and other family members.

DEREK was pure joy! He had many, many friends. His dad died in 2009, DEREK took it real bad. He was 17. He smoked pot from 14. Started percs at 18-19 got hurt at wrk. Friend gave him some for pain. That was the start of the opioids. They get too expensive, started heroin at 20. Used for a year then quit for 1 1/2 yrs. Got more depressed about life & his DAD. Starts using again. I had no clue at all!! When I found out I sent him to rehab immed. 6-7 rehabs, nothing worked. Finally he got a great job and in March 2015 he got clean. Was on probation for 6 mos for job. July 2015, car accident, broken collar bone, didn’t take any pain meds. Out of wrk for 8 wks. Started heroin again. Nov 2015 sent to rehab in Cali. Doing great. Came home end of FEB 2016 for a court date I couldn’t cancel. Started using when got home from Cali. Died 1 wk after he got home. Sober house in Cali kicked him out because he failed a pee test. I had Insurance but they said something didn’t go thru. THAT WAS WHEN MY WORLD, LIFE ENDED.

Sarah, our incredible daughter, was a larger than life person, adored by many, a brilliant artist, a kind, compassionate soul, dog lover and a rescuer of senior dogs. She was warm, funny, and real. Unbeknownst to us, around the age of 16, she started using drugs, seemingly wanting to escape the demands of reality. At age 17 1/2, Sarah was awarded a full scholarship to Kansas City Art Institute and by the time her first semester was completed, her drug use was out of control and she dropped out of school. She became addicted to
cocaine but used whatever drugs were available. Out of control, unwilling to talk with us, she found herself in a dangerous world where she was beaten, raped, robbed and more. One night she was taken to the ER and talked with us after a year or more of being out of touch. She agreed to return home to California, said yes to rehab and then sober living. Her first year home was amazing for all of us. We had our daughter back, she was doing well, going to meetings, working and following through on what she promised. So, at the end of that year, knowing that being an artist was her dream, we offered to send her to a really good art college. During her time there, she remained sober and created wonderful art but after graduating she talked her doctor, who knew she was an addict, into giving her xanax and klonipin. Almost immediately she was addicted. We didn’t have a clue as she was not living at home, and was great at concealing what she didn’t want us to know. She had applied to the UCLA Fine Art program for a Master's degree, was accepted on a full scholarship, which was a true honor, as they only accepted four people for the year she had applied. About two months before school started we thought she sounded strange on the phone, went to her apartment where she was very drugged out. We begged her to go to the hospital for detox and treatment, knowing her life was on the line and that she might miss the amazing opportunity to attend UCLA. She received treatment, was able to complete her Master's drug-free but once she graduated in 2012, her use of drugs, mostly opioids but whatever else she could find, spun out of control. Her addictive behaviors emerged again: moodiness, dishonesty, constant crises, fatigue, and the inability to manage her life. In 2017, she called us saying she needed rehab. We helped her get admitted. Upon discharge we asked, practically begged her, to go to intensive outpatient rehab. She refused. She started using again almost immediately upon discharge. That was 2018 when fentanyl was available. Somehow, during the last year of her life, regardless of how out of control her drug use was, she was able create a most amazing art show at Klowdenmann Gallery in Los Angeles. If you google her name, you can see her work, which was her passion and a manifestation of her life force. Sarah’s final gift was donating her organs, giving life, allowing her to live on in others. Rest in peace our beautiful daughter!