Alexandra

We’ve hit 2016…I somehow seemed to realize this as I was scouring the constant, yet, new articles commenting on the opioid epidemic ravishing our communities everyday. It seems as if time had stopped since my brother’s death… It took me almost 8 whole months into 2016 to realize it’s no longer the year my brother passed from an opioid overdose.

Over the past year and a half plus, I would read each new article remembering another life taken far too soon from addiction; and I seemed to feel a connection, although I didn’t know them at all, to those families and friends whose loved one’s obituary ended in the year, “2015.” Those families and friends felt similar grief, despair, and hopelessness Jonathan’s loved ones were feeling in the wake of his passing.

It took me a while, but I see it is no longer “our” year. And as that year changes, new grief settles in. Grief of days turning into months, and months into years, years without our loved ones. However, as that year changes, new responsibility also arises, responsibility to bring awareness to this epidemic and to join with loved ones from all over to remember the beautiful souls who have lost their battles with addiction in both Kentucky and our entire nation; responsibility to recognize and to fight this battle occurring in all homes and communities, a battle that refuses to discriminate.

*In loving memory of Jonathan “Johnny” Squire… the brightest light in all of our lives. He left a legacy of love and will always be remembered by his joy of living and his never give up attitude.