So you thought it wouldn't happen to your family...guess again

I hear this phrase occasionally from people (I never thought this would happen to our family) and I've thought it to myself a time or two, but it's another thing entirely to lose a family member to an opioid overdose. This is something that more and more people are experiencing and it's only getting worse with the illegal drug market being flooded with fentanyl laced heroin. Heroin, a word I never would have associated with my brother. His official cause of death is accidental overdose, but we may never know if it was intentional. The toxicology listed 3 different variations of fentanyl, heroin and meth. My brother had told my stepdad that he knew to stay away from fentanyl and that it scared him, but he mistakenly trusted the one person he got it from to not give him tainted heroin and he ended up paying for that mistake with his life. He did know the risks though and every time he injected heroin into his vein it was like he was playing Russian Roulette, except the odds were never in his favor.

Now that he is gone, my stepdad is getting calls about overdue parking tickets, collections and I had to tell him about him cashing his ex girlfriend's stimulus check, which is considered a federal crime that carries a $10,000 fine, 5 years in prison and or both. It would have also been considered mail fraud, and bank fraud. He had classic avoidant type behavior patterns and not many healthy coping skills, which can be a recipe for disaster, and when COVID hit he isolated even more and became dependent on others. He was also born addicted to codeine, because my mom's cancer came back during her pregnancy with him and the back spasms she had were excruciating and codeine was all she could tolerate. She also had to give birth a month early, because they were so debilitating and the doctors needed to find out what was causing it and they couldn't do that until RJ was born.

Needless to say, RJ was doomed from the beginning. Born addicted, hyperactive, medicated at a young age for ADD, avoidant attachment style, never knowing mom, and Gina and I had our own lives and eventually our family split without much regard for how it would affect RJ. 

I miss him so much! I nicknamed him Monkey Man, because he would climb up onto the back of the couch, jump and bounce off the couch cushions onto the floor. He was such a little Spitfire! Now his son is the spitting image of him and I will get to watch him grow up.

💕💕 Me and RJ in 1998 💕💕

R

Randy and RJ's son Garrett

RIP RJ and Mom 💕 I love and miss you both!