Ohio Couple Heroin, After 18-year-old Alison Shuemake died in late August, her parents saw no reason to hide the cause: Heroin.
And so Fred and Dorothy McIntosh Shuemake, of Middletown, Ohio, made sure the first line of Alison’s obituary in the Journal-News said that she “passed away Wednesday, August 26, 2015 of a heroin overdose.”
“There was no hesitation,” Dorothy told the Associated Press about their bold decision.
“We’ve seen other deaths when it’s heroin, and the families don’t talk about it because they’re ashamed or they feel guilty. Shame doesn’t matter right now.”
Alison was found dead along with her 31-year-old boyfriend, Luther Combs of Kentucky, in the apartment they shared, and autopsies revealed opiates and marijuana in their systems.That made the couple part of an out-of-control heroin problem in their area, and nationwide. In Butler County, heroin deaths jumped from 30 in 2012 to 103 in 2014, and 86 deaths were recorded in the first six months of this year, according to coroner's records.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this year declared heroin abuse a national epidemic, noting that 8,200 Americans died from the drug in 2013 — nearly four times the death rate from heroin use in 2002.
Alison, a singer and athlete who worked two jobs, had gone to rehab and kept clean for months before she relapsed for what turned out to be the final time.
Her parents hoped Alison’s obituary would send a message to anyone struggling with heroin abuse — or seeing someone they love caught in it.“What really matters is keeping some other person, especially a child, from trying this ... We didn’t want anybody else to feel the same agony and wretchedness that we're left with,” Dorothy said.
The obituary apparently affected one family very quickly — that of Combs, Alison’s boyfriend. When his obituary ran in Kentucky newspapers days after Alison’s, the first sentence echoed his girlfriend’s grim notice: “passed away Wednesday, August 26, 2015 of a heroin overdose.”
Blunt mentions of heroin fatalities in obituaries remain rare, even as those fatalities continue to grow nationally.
Earlier this year, a New Hampshire family also earned national attention by penning a painfully honest obituary after the fatal heroin overdose of 24-year-old Molly Parks. It mentioned the cause of death early, and added: “(Molly) made a lot of bad decisions including experimenting with drugs. She fought her addiction to heroin for at least five years.”
And so Fred and Dorothy McIntosh Shuemake, of Middletown, Ohio, made sure the first line of Alison’s obituary in the Journal-News said that she “passed away Wednesday, August 26, 2015 of a heroin overdose.”
“There was no hesitation,” Dorothy told the Associated Press about their bold decision.
“We’ve seen other deaths when it’s heroin, and the families don’t talk about it because they’re ashamed or they feel guilty. Shame doesn’t matter right now.”
Alison was found dead along with her 31-year-old boyfriend, Luther Combs of Kentucky, in the apartment they shared, and autopsies revealed opiates and marijuana in their systems.That made the couple part of an out-of-control heroin problem in their area, and nationwide. In Butler County, heroin deaths jumped from 30 in 2012 to 103 in 2014, and 86 deaths were recorded in the first six months of this year, according to coroner's records.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this year declared heroin abuse a national epidemic, noting that 8,200 Americans died from the drug in 2013 — nearly four times the death rate from heroin use in 2002.
Alison, a singer and athlete who worked two jobs, had gone to rehab and kept clean for months before she relapsed for what turned out to be the final time.
Her parents hoped Alison’s obituary would send a message to anyone struggling with heroin abuse — or seeing someone they love caught in it.“What really matters is keeping some other person, especially a child, from trying this ... We didn’t want anybody else to feel the same agony and wretchedness that we're left with,” Dorothy said.
The obituary apparently affected one family very quickly — that of Combs, Alison’s boyfriend. When his obituary ran in Kentucky newspapers days after Alison’s, the first sentence echoed his girlfriend’s grim notice: “passed away Wednesday, August 26, 2015 of a heroin overdose.”
Blunt mentions of heroin fatalities in obituaries remain rare, even as those fatalities continue to grow nationally.
Earlier this year, a New Hampshire family also earned national attention by penning a painfully honest obituary after the fatal heroin overdose of 24-year-old Molly Parks. It mentioned the cause of death early, and added: “(Molly) made a lot of bad decisions including experimenting with drugs. She fought her addiction to heroin for at least five years.”
Blogger Comment
Facebook Comment