Drew Douglas VanOrden

My brother Drew was a truly amazing person. He was an amazingly talented musician who worked harder than anyone I know. He was the guy that would show up early to work and leave late. He had an extreme passion for music and spaghetti westerns. An intelligent, handsome one-of-a-kind free-spirited guy who loved God and his family. He fought hard against his addiction for 20+ years. He was a fighter and a real-life winner in my eyes who battled this horrible disease.

This is hard because I have many favorite memories of my brother. From learning Heavy Metal band info in the 80s with him to watching him grow as a father of three beautiful children always having lots of fun when we were all together whether it was jet skiing, hanging out, basketball games, listening to music he was always a light in my life. A best friend that would listen to anything no matter how ridiculous the conversation.

I will miss our daily talks. I will miss him giving me a hard time if I wasn't in the best mood, I will miss him laughing and making fun of silly things. I will miss watching him interact with his children and how that would light up his world.

I believe my brother would like to be remembered as a brave soul who battled hard against the disease of addiction. I believe he would want the world to know that this is a real thing and at times a very hard thing to manage. I believe he would want the world to know how easy it is to get addicted to opioids. His battle started with a prescription to OxyContin after a construction accident and the addiction continued to graduate from there. He was a great musician with impeccable taste for not only writing his own music but loving the music of others. He was a loving father who loved his children more than anything in the world. He would not judge and accepted people for who they were the good, the bad and the ugly. He would want this world to understand that addiction is not a made-up disease and something for most folks is very hard to manage. He would want better programs of recovery for individuals and families affected by this disease.