My name is Sharon, and I have three son.
Our family was a family like any other. The boys were very close to each other when they were young.
Outside of school, they played soccer, hockey and football.
They loved playing games, biking, jumping on the trampoline, watching movies and playing video games.
We made trips to Mexico, San Diego, Disneyland and Shuswap British Columbia. It was also outings in nature and the zoo.
Christian was my youngest.
He was shy.
He loved to tease and he had a sense of humor all his own.
He loved to laugh.
His smile was contagious and her beautiful brown eyes were bright.
Christian was mischievous.
He was always ready to help at home, either to clean the table or mowing the lawn.
Christian was attentive, and it was caring.
He loved to cook and had a sweet tooth!
He liked to play Legos and build a lot of things.
He had great affection for our Sheltie.
Christian did not speak a lot of emotions.
He lived his life at full speed and enjoyed the simplest things.
Every day he told me he loved me.
Christian died when he was just 20 years old. He died of a drug addiction.
Dependence has no limits.
My husband and I had talked about drugs and alcohol to our children.
Every evening family supped.
Our boys knew the difference between what was right and wrong.
They were polite and respectful towards others.
I thought we had passed through the most difficult years when Christian finished high school.
I was wrong!!
At 18, like many young people, Christian began to use marijuana.
The first time we tried a drug, of course it's by choice. And that choice can lead to dependence, as was the case for our son.
Some today believe that it is safer to consume prescription drugs to get high. But these drugs are just as deadly as those found in the street.
As Christian dependence was growing, there was a big change in his personality.
He felt anger.
It was the insomnia, but never missed a day of work.
He was a master in the art of manipulation.
He lied, and came to believe his own lies.
He had friends we never met.
Christian went for dinner with the family, but he was losing weight.
We put him outside the house twice because of his behavior and the choices he made.
Christian was followed by a therapist.
He refused to see that he had a problem and always placed the blame on others.
Every day, Christian was struggling to be our son, the boy that we raised.
But he was caught between the love he felt for his family and his addiction.
At times we happened to see the boy we'd always known.
The drugs now were his best friends.
Christian did not deserve this fate.
It was good to be, and in his short life he touched many people.
We received condolences from people we had never met.
They knew how our son was extraordinary!
Losing a child is the most devastating of all.
We would so he had another life.
He will never go to college and never exercise the job of his dreams.
He will never visit the places he wanted to visit.
Christian will never marry or have children.
All we have left are memories.
Our house is not the same.
I'll never be the same.
I'm not the person I was.
I'm not the wife, mother or girlfriend that I was before what happened to our family.
I will always have a big hole in my heart.
The darkest days, I know Christian loved his family. He knew how much we all loved.
It would be sad to see us suffer so much today.
Respect yourself. Choose your friends.
Fight for your beliefs.
You CAN survive to adolescence and have a happy and fulfilled life, as could have been that of Christian.
The bad things can happen to good people.
Sharon, the mother of Christian