Anyone who has ever had a child who was addicted to drugs knows how much hell that roller coaster makes you go through. Emotions run the gamut: fear mixed with hope, mixed with frustration, mixed with sadness.

Our son, Evan, was an active child, running around as soon as he could walk. He loved dirt bikes and skateboarding. He was always on the move. Evan was an old soul and very protective of his younger sister.

Unfortunately, like so many others, Evan’s path to addiction and eventual fatal opiate overdose began in high school when a classmate gave him a Percocet pill. And he was hooked. He ended up with older kids and a girl introduced him to heroin. He was 15 years old.