A message from an a mystery woman

This week I received a note. 

I have read this note fifteen times. 

Here it is.

"I too had a son who became involved with pot while in high school.  He never actually went to summer camp but there were traffic stops, tickets, court appearances and attorneys.  I felt so many of the things you talk about in your blog and reading your blog brought memories of those feelings.  The fear for your child and the desperate feeling that you HAVE to do something, anything before it gets any worse was so paralyzing at times.

I lost both my brother and my sister to drug involvement.  My sister lived her life involved with drugs, hard drugs.  She suffered a massive coronary at age 36.  My brother was murdered when he was 24 years old because he went to pick up a friend who was hanging out with a group of pot smokers one night.  My brother said something one of them did not like.  He was stabbed in the heart  and died before he reached the hospital. 

My son looked so much like my brother.  I kept picturing my son laying in the casket instead of my brother.  I was so frightened for him and his future.

This was a few years ago.  Now he is in his second year at college and is on the Dean's list.  He lives on his own and he is responsible and aiming for a future.

I guess I wanted to share that there is a HOPE.  I pray that one day in the future you will look back on this and it will be no more than looking back."

Okay, "so you go to the market with your troubles in a bag....you will come back with your bag".  I have read this fifteen times.

And it made me think...Why, as a nation, as a country, as a state and a community are we not crazed by the drugs and the abuse in our country?  A group of replacement refs make a bad call in the end zone and our nation goes crazy for a week.  We were consumed by the call.   One woman loses and brother AND as sister and we don't talk about it.  One bad call and we go bizerk.  Over thousands of young deaths and nothing.

The small county that I live in has the HIGHEST prescription drug abuse deaths in the state and nothing.  I tried with town hall meetings but my kids were bullied and the "button" was pulled out of his car at a red light and threatened. 

Kids are dying from drinking energy drinks.  Try and get your child in a a rehab center...there are "no beds available". 

This is so serious.  And so sad.  So very, very sad. 

I don't know the lady who sent me this note.  What I do know is I felt every word she wrote, to the very core of my soul. 

The worse feeling in the world is when your kid doesn't get off the school bus or he leaves in the car as a new driver and you hear sirens...multiply this fear by a trillion.

And yet, she talked about HOPE.  That word again.  So tiny and so powerful.  HOPE.

A student in Tennessee died because of butt chugging (enemas filled with booze, absorption into the body is faster and a parent cannot smell alcohol) and another girl in California died because she drank hand sanitizer. 

So sad.  I am sure that if my son could high from bird seed he would be standing under the bird feeder flapping his wings.  We have a society of substance abusers.

My friend lived in NYC for years.  Suddenly, she moved.  Her reason was this, she wasnt' affected by the homeless any longer.

Maybe that is the deal.  Maybe we just accept it.  Maybe we don't care.  Maybe we don't think it can happen in our homes. 

And if it does hit your home, I can assure you, you will care.

I have thought so much about this woman and her journey and if her mother had to bury two of her children, and what was the magic that turned her son around.  I think about her strength.  I think about her courage and the guts it tool to reach out to me. 

And I think about that word that she wished for me, HOPE.

I hope that as a nation, we can focus on getting our citizens well.

I HOPE that she has peace in heart and I hope that others who are struggling, find peace as their new substance as choice.