May Her Tortured Soul Rest In Peace

This one is personal… I do not mean to slight anyone who has lost a loved one. This is simply close to my heart and the hearts of a couple of my new friends in recovery, especially Linda H.

Yesterday I told you about a gal in New York who had 19 years clean in Narcotics Anonymous who was “back out there.” Her name was Lorraine. That’s right – was – and still is. Sadly, two members of her home group took on the task of having to identify Lorraine in the coroner’s office yesterday. She died from an overdose in a shooting gallery. The conditions she was found in were not nice and I’ll only tell you one thing – the other people using that gallery had put a tarp over her when she died and continued with their business. Those who are familiar with those conditions will understand.

Lorraine had been Linda’s sponsor. Lorraine sponsored many women in Narcotics Anonymous. She was dearly loved by these women despite the fact that she brought recovery to the newcomer in the manner it was given to me – up front, truthful and damn personal!

The strange thing is, I was about to get to know Lorraine in an intimate way. Linda had set us up on a “date” for the end of this month. Linda was sure we would like each other. I was looking forward to the meeting. Last week we knew that would be canceled.

What happened? This is second hand information but from what we’ve been told, last October Lorraine had an operation. Unfortunately she neglected to mention to her surgeon that she was a recovering drug addict. You see, Lorraine had somehow come to a state of mind that, after 19 years, she had some level of power over her disease. He prescribed percocet which evolved into percodan which evolved into oxycodone which evolved into sniffing heroin, which led to shooting up.

Pay attention! 8 months! That’s all it took!

Linda and I had a talk with a priest today. Fr. Steve let us know that the God we understand knew that Lorraine was not in her right mind and He would forgive her and then bring her into His kingdom through His magnificent love.

I have lost the power of choice when it comes to drinking alcohol or using drugs of any name. Please – PLEASE – don’t allow any of the profundity pushers to convince you of anything contradicting that reality! This is not a game, it is a matter of life or death!