Terri Renee Hickman

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Submitted by: carolyn Wilkerson…..mother
Born: 1964
Died: 2014
My Tribute: My only daughter and oldest child.She was smart ,funny and loved by all that knew her.I will always have a piece of me missing,I loved her so much! Terri had ovarian cancer when she was 38 and that began her addiction to pain pills.She tried so many times to get off them ,but they are so addictive she couldn’t beat it.She beat the cancer but the pain pills beat her.Such sadness I’ve never known.I don’t think I can survive this. My life is torn apart from her death.I hope and pray I never see another one of my kids on life support,I can’t get that picture out of my mind.It’s driving me crazy,literally.She has 2 grown children and 3 grandchildren,boththeir parents died within 2 months and 9 days of each other from drugs.Such a loss for her kids.How is this ever going to end?

Courtney Layton

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Submitted by: Laurie Layton (Momma)
Born: 1/89
Died: 3/12
My Tribute: My beautiful daughter Courtney Layton died of a heroin overdose in March 2012 at 23 years old. She was my only daughter. We did not even know she was using drugs. I knew she smoked pot, that was it. How could I not have known. Well she was away at college and perhaps when she came home she hid it well. All I know is that she was home for Christmas and happy and died in March. The coroner report said there were only two needle marks on her arm. She had just started using and she died. She didn’t even have a chance to go to rehab. So my message is it only takes once. Please don’t use. I miss my baby every minute of every day of my life.

Jacob

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Submitted by: Anne
Born: 1993
Died: 2013
My Tribute: Jacob was a loving, sensitive and caring young man. He loved to play his drums and strum his guitar. Truly enjoyed music and life. His addiction started with prescription percocets and began a battle that ended December 22 2013 from a heroin overdose. He wanted to be clean and went through 3 rehabs, the last one he remained clean for 5 months. Addiction is a disease that can happen to anyone. Something needs to be done to stop how easily doctors prescribe pain pills and the pharmaceutical companies that are making millions of $$. The sad truth is almost all heroin addiction starts with prescription pain pills. No one should ever have to endure this loss but also the stigma of shame should not exist nor judgement. No one who has lost their life to this disease is any less significant than any other human being whom has passed away for other reasons.. He is now an angel counting stars and will shine in my heart forever.

Greg Hottman

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Submitted by: Julie (Greg’s Mum)
Born: 1979
Died: 2013
My Tribute: I lost my only child, Greg 2/8/13. He was released from rehab and 24 hours later, he was found a block away and had died from a Heroin OverDose. Forever 33…
Remembering you is easy,
I do it every day.
It’s just the HEARTACHE of losing you,
That will NEVER go away.

Your MUM!

Tracey Thompson

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Submitted by: Carolyn Thompson
Born: 1972
Died: 2013
My Tribute: Our daughter Tracey was a wonderful kind human being. She would do anything to help others. We lost her to a drug overdose on jan 3rd. Three days before her 42nd birthday. She has 3 beautiful children who she loved very much. Her depression was overwhelming and as a result she went from Rx to street drugs. Our baby overdosed while out of town. I never got to tell her good bye.

Jenna Caryl Bedau

Submitted by: Cathy M Bedau
Born: 1988
Died: 2011
My Tribute: Jenna passed away alone in our home on April 11 2011. She overdosed on Heroin after 41 days of rehab. She had an infectious laugh, was a loyal friend, my only daughter and my friend. I miss her every day, and believe I always will. 22 years is not enough time.

Our Baby

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Submitted by: Leann Fanion
Born: 1989
Died: 2014
My Tribute: Andrew M Fanion 10/3/89 – 01/01/14 Andrew was a sweet honest and loving person, he died of an overdose on new years day after being out of detox for 1 week waiting to get into a half way house. He was a great football and hockey player and all around athlete in high school. He is missed by his sister father and myself.

Jarrod Levi Autterson

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Submitted by: Wendy@JarrodsLaw.Org
Born: 1981
Died: 2004
My Tribute: My son Jarrod died in a sober living home while paying for a second set of eyes. What I discovered shocked me to my core. As a result of this tragedy I created JarrodsLaw.Org to find a solution to the complete lack of oversight in Sober Living Homes across this entire nation. There is a change.org petition as well as a whitehouse.org petition to get this movement started.
Please go my my website www.JarrodsLaw.Org to see what happened to Jarrod.
Feel free to contact me personally at (909) 744-9352 if you want to help me with my battle cry and to become ambassadors of change with me. United we stand …divided we fall.
As Jarrod’s mother I decided to get better and not bitter. I honor Jarrod’s life to make sure that he died in valor, not vain, and to hopefully save someone else’s kid from dying as a result of blatant negligence.

Daniel Dozier

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Submitted by: Andrea Dozier
Born: 1973
Died: 2013
My Tribute: Because of heroin, I am now half a person. Two little girls don’t have a Daddy anymore. We lost our sweet Daniel to a lethal combination of heroin and alcohol. He fought his demons so hard, and for so long. Now he doesn’t have to fight anymore. He beat them for a while. Determination and distance from the bad influences kept him clean for 3 years. He was working and we were building a new life with our daughters. But a death in the family required him to go back to his hometown, and put him back in the reach of those bad influences. I’ll never know what made him decide to use that one more time, but he did, and that decision cost him his life. But that’s not what I want people to remember about him. I want them to remember his kindness, his love for his family, the joy he took in his children, his intelligence and curiosity to learn new things every day. I want them to remember his engaging smile, his handsome face, and his belief that he could become more than he was if only he could overcome the weight of alcohol and drugs that had held him down for most of his life. Daniel, we miss you every day – I know you are looking down on us and watching over us, waiting patiently until we can be together again.

Tyler John Hole

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Submitted by: Sherri Hole
Born: 1989
Died: 2013
My Tribute: Ty was a home-town Hudson kid who loved this town. He was born in River Falls and was a very welcome baby, our youngest son. Ty grew up with a loving family with two parents, two brothers, pets, stories at night, church on Sunday, dinner at the family table, and lots of friends. He had great friends that he hung out with in our neighborhood near E.P. Rock -many of them friends from early elementary years all the way through high school. He went to Sunday School and Bible Camp. He greatly enjoyed being a part of our church’s youth group. He was confirmed. He enjoyed school- except for math classes- and loved all the social opportunities school and sports presented. Being the youngest of 3 boys, he grew up first watching & later playing booster baseball, football, & basketball. His picture has appeared in the Hudson Star Observer several times- when he dressed up as a “money tree” for the Rotary Club’s Halloween parade, when he was on a float in the Homecoming Parade with the football team, when he was Prom Prince and now in his obituary.
Ty took incredible pleasure in being with people his own age. He had a comfortable, low-key personality and fit it well with almost anyone. He had great intuition and went out of his way to make people comfortable and entertained in social situations. He was a thoughtful son who did chores around the house. He made his own birthday cards and wrote in the last card he gave me “”Happy Birthday Mom! Mom, thank you so much for always being there for me when I need you, and for always believing in me even if I don’t. You are the best mom anyone could ever ask for, we are all so lucky to have you in our lives. I hope you have an awesome birthday! Love, Ty.” Ty was a “regular” Hudson kid with a bright future and lots of plans to finish school, meet and fall in love with his “beacon of hope” and have kids of his own.
After graduating from High School and a devastating break up with his first girlfriend, he was isolated from most of his friends and family. He’d made choices that took his life off track and was heart broken, ashamed and embarrassed.. He felt that he’d been left behind. At 18, he thought he needed to be independent and get through it on his own with minimal help from his family. Unknown to us, he began using Oxycotin. His life quickly spiraled downwards- he wanted to move ahead with his plans but something always happened that made his plans fail. One of his friends called us in late August and told us through many tears that he was worried about Ty. Ty and “lots of kids from Hudson” were “chasing the dragon”- smoking heroin. Ty denied it all when confronted. We watched, worried, continued to monitor and question him. Things began disappearing from our home. When confronted in November 2011, Ty shocked us by telling us he was injecting heroin and his using was out of control. He’d progressed from Oxycotin to smoking heroin to injecting it. He told us opiates are out of your system in four to five days and won’t show up on a drug test after that. He immediately went intoa 28 day in-patient program. He looked progressively more calm, focused, comfortable with himself during our visits. He told us he had the tools to deal with his drug problem and that would never happen again. We were full of hope and were happy he’d addressed his problem.
After treatment, he moved into a sober house in St. Paul in order to attend intensive out-patient treatment He relapsed twice and was kicked out after 3 weeks. We talked frankly about the possibility of heroin killing him. He was kicked out of his sober house and his out patient program. It’s ironic that we heard again and again that “relapse is part of recovery” but when someone relapses, they are kicked out of their treatment programs. Ty didn’t want to return to in-patient treatment so soon. . He moved to a sober house/horse ranch based on faith. He reconnected with his faith & felt he had great success in working on his recovery there. He had a sense of community and purpose. He began to rebuild his sense of worth through helping kids with cognitive disabilities and other problems ride the horses. He stayed for four months. He thought he was strong enough to “get his life back on track” and wanted to enroll in college and get a job. We didn’t realize that staying sober needed to be his full time job and focus for the next few years. We thought he had made it through a terrible “stage” and were glad he was ready to move on. Ty noted that when he made good choices, good things happened to him. He frequently talked with us about being sober. His connection and love for each member of our family was evident through all of his challenges. I understand now how hard Ty worked to protect us from what was really going on in his life and keep the ugly parts of his life separated from his family. We know Ty died knowing how much he was loved. We will love and miss you always