Guest Author - Susan Hubenthal

Today, is June 29, 2008.
Today, I will celebrate the life of my son, Kelly.
Today, I will visit him at the cemetery.
Today, I will lay flowers on top of his crypt, with an angel and candle for all to see that he is loved and never forgotten.
Today, I will sing to him as I did when he was a baby.
Today, I will travel backwards into that black abyss of torment, pain and grief.
Today, I will relive the exact moment I was told my son had died.
Today, the vision of his cold, lifeless body will invade every space of my mind and eyes.
Today, I will let the tears flow with longing to hold him just one more time.
Today, is Kelly’s Angel Day, the 12th anniversary of his death to a heroin overdose.
Today, I will comfort my Daughter and my Mother.
Today, I will forgive those who turned away, from me, when I needed support.
Today, I will give thanks to GriefNet-substances and the parents who became my brothers and sisters-in-sorrow.
Today, I will thank them for loving me unconditionally, for supporting me and for holding me up when I stumbled.
Today, as any day, I will hold my son in my heart and remember the sweet little boy, and the handsome young man he had become.
Today, I will remember how bravely he fought his addictions and demons.
Today, seems like he died yesterday.
Today, all my focus is on my sweet boy, Kelly.
Today, my son might very well be alive if prevention education had been coordinated in our city.
Today, if the 'Good Samaritan' policy were enforced, the people who brought the drugs to my son’s home, the night he died, might have called for aid and not feared arrest and/or incarceration.
Today, I will remember hearing how they were scared when Kelly became unresponsive, and cleaned up their mess, then left my son to die alone on the floor in his own home.
Today, I will wonder if life saving efforts could have kept him in my arms.
Today, I will wonder if training in rescue breathing or the administration of naloxone had been available, could he have been saved?
Today, I know these practices have already saved many lives.
Today, I ask you to understand our children were loved and wanted.
Today, I ask you to understand that addiction is not selective . . . it can happen in any family.
Today, we need drastic changes in drug policies in order to save the lives of our children who have been snatched, from us, by addiction and harmful drugs.
Today, I ask you to take time to urge your legislators to consider ways to prevent overdose deaths.
Today, I ask you to demand legislation to provide cities, states, tribal governments and community based organizations with federal grants to prevent overdose deaths and illegal drugs.
Today, I ask you to remember the thousands of children who have died from a drug related death.
Today, please remember my son Kelly Arthur Hubenthal

August 7, 1967 - June 29, 1996
Son of Susan and the late Bert Hubenthal
Brother of Jennifer and Bart
Grandson of Martie Stenson
In our hearts, forever, with love.