A recent high school graduate from the Abington Heights School District, she died last February from a heroin overdose.
When Jerry called “Corbett” yesterday, I worried that he might say something wrong. I try my best to guard people’s privacy and stay true to the facts. But Jerry said everything right.
A young woman for whom he cared is dead.
And he’s alive.
The terrible truth of the matter is that she did, indeed, die from a heroin overdose.
He called her Noel, and I apologize for not spelling her name correctly if, in fact, I am misspelling her name.
I don’t know her last name. I don’t remember when she died or if the circumstances of her death were reported in the newspaper.
I only know that a young woman whom people remember lovingly as a wonderful person is gone, lost forever to the increasingly deadly scourge of heroin that is now being used by other teenagers in the Clarks Summit area.
The power of her legacy is for us to decide.
Will she have died just another junkie?
Or will we remember her in our increased commitment to helping other teenagers like her stop using heroin – or, better yet, never start?
The young man called himself Jerry and said he tried to keep her from using again. But he failed. She went back to old friends who were not so friendly in the long run. They’ve got their own problems, including the burden of carrying some blame for her death on their conscience for the rest of their lives, however long or short they might be.
I imagine that Jerry’s carrying his own share of guilt.
But he sounds like he’s doing what he must do if he ever hopes to stay clean himself.
Heroin was easy to get, he said.
Getting straight is not the same breezy walk in the park.
Getting straight is a long dark road rife with terror, temptation and sometimes death.
But he called yesterday from the University of Scranton where he’s enrolled as a student. He spoke of his mother and of trying to stay clean. His voice sounded tired, but his soft tone sounded hopeful.
I felt bad for the kid, who’s not a kid anymore.
Calling himself Noel’s boyfriend, he made it clear that he’s trying to do his best to keep her memory alive. To do that, he has to be stronger than ever and set an example for himself and for others.
Both goals are difficult.
But if Jerry succeeds, if he goes to school and work and stays alive in body and in spirit, he can help others even though he could not help Noel.
He can walk tall, loaded not with heroin but with experience that he can offer as harsh, holy testimony to the reality of life and death in his piece of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Heroin has been killing people around here for many years. Meanwhile, area drug experts, including cops and counselors, compete for clients and disagree about how to help end heroin’s destruction.
Jesus or methadone?
I’m for whatever works to end addiction and endorse any and all means by which users and potential users can survive.
Sue Henry
