WHY I GIVE
When Accidenta
Overdose Takes
Your Only Child
A mother’s transformative gift ensur
her son’s life will help save others
Heide M. lost her “caring, talented,
super-smart” son, Chip, just when
he was loving his new life and
helping others find recovery. Just
when her relationship with him had
grown stronger than ever. Just one
week after his 20th birthday.
Although Chip had struggled with
substance use and mental health
challenges since his early teens,
he was turning things around. No
one was happier than Chip when,
at age 19, he marked a full year of
sobriety.
But then, in an unthinkable foreverinstant,
Chip’s life ended. He
was found unresponsive in his
bedroom. Chip died of accidental
overdose. He had apparently taken
a street drug unknowingly laced
with carfentanil, a synthetic opioid
10,000 times more potent than
morphine.
LOVE THE PERSON,
HATE THE DISEASE
As a grieving parent, the more
Heide asks herself “why him?”
the more she reminds herself:
“Everything about addiction makes
no sense.” Heide h
relearned this pain
years of involveme
“It’s incr
difficult
through tho
and underst
you’re reall
with—a dis
reflects. A
with many
“Addiction is a terr
disease,” Heide ca
scientist. I want fa
and reason. But w
takes hold of some
you can’t make se
going on. Why are
their relationships
sabotaging thems
Why are they thro
everything good in
“It’s incredibly diff
through those issu
understand what y
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