Well this is the final nail in the coffin for a while, art wise I think I'll be done until I get my new tablet in tax-season.

At first I was a bit stone-faced, but now it's starting to sink in and I'm getting more sad and angry. I don't know all the details yet except that he frick'n OD'd, and was a recovering heroin addict. (My Mom said he had been sober for almost 2yrs.) I wasn't close with him as an adult because he had gotten into drugs, so most of my updates on him was information from my mom. For large portion of my life he lived with us as an older brother of sorts, but was more so like my Mom's little brother. (He was born when she was 12, and mostly raised by my grandparents, so my Mom was around him A LOT, and he came to live with us for a while when I was a kid) Needless to say if is affecting my mom and my grandma a lot. My grandma feels like she lost her youngest son, and my mom feels like she lost her younger brother even if his passing was caused by something as ugly and vile as a relapse into drugs. I just wanted to share something my mom wrote as an expression of her grief, since I want to help her, but can't do much at the moment. (Granted she wrote this on facebook while she was waiting for my grandparents to arrive at her house)

Watching someone you love, that has fought so hard to beat addiction, throw everything away and sink back onto a life that will most likely lead to jail or death, is one of the hardest things you will ever do. You want to help them back to a clean and sober life but you realize by doing this, as you have so many times before, will now just be enabling them because it will show them that you will always be there to bail them out. You want to grab and shake them and say "Wtf are you doing" but at some point you realize that it wouldn't make a difference. So you sit back and watch the tragedy unfold, as if you are watching a movie. Feeling helpless to stop it, feeling like you haven't done enough to help, even though you know only the addict can help themselves.

Loving a drug addict or an active alcoholic is the hardest thing you will ever have to go through. I have friends and family who have gone through this battle.
Battling a drug and/or an alcohol addiction is a beast for the person addicted and the ones who love them. So l am asking you to stand with me in prayer for every family member and friend who has lost their battle with drugs and alcohol and those who continue to conquer it! Put this on your page for one hour if you know someone who has or had an addiction. Many will be hesitant to copy and paste this. Some of you won't paste this but I think I know the ones who will. And thanks in advance!