Why we started

My friend Riley died from his addiction. In addition to countless friends and a loving family, Riley’s young son was left to cope with the major loss of losing a parent. Though his death felt very sudden at the time, I realized we had all watched Riley fight addiction for many hard years. Int the beginning it was easy to miss the progressive toll addiction was taking on him because, at a glance, Riley appeared happy. But a closer look exposed the depression, agitation and underlying disappointment he had with himself.

Riley knew his part in his illness. If he were writing this he would have been very open about it. He wanted sobriety and fought for it with all he had. But in the end, the disease was just bigger than him. When Riley died, I remember hearing a Bruce Springsteen song that did the best at representing what I was feeling. “They say you can’t take it with you, but I think that they are wrong. Cause I woke up this morning and something big was gone.”