Submitted by: Lily-his mom
Born: 1990
Died: 2012
My Tribute: Our son Nicholas was born on April 9, 1991, and Died on August 18, 2012 from an acute heroin overdose. Nicholas grew up in a very happy and loving home in suburbia New Jersey. From the time he could walk and talk, we played outside, went to parks, watched movies, ate at the best restaurants, played in the snow, vacationed down the Jersey shore, Disney in Florida, etc…etc…etc…..Life was as perfect for our family as one could ever have imagined. Nicholas was a good student, funny, charismatic, loving, handsome, athletic, and the list could go on forever about who he was. In his junior year his father and I noticed some off behavior and Nicholas became distant. We really thought and hoped it was just hormonal teenage years…..Senior year became worse and we spoke with Nicholas many times. He was insistent there wasn’t anything wrong, not doing drugs, and so forth. We came to find out after graduating High School that he had an addiction to oxycotin and roxycotin, honestly meds we had never even heard of. My husband and I had never touched a drug in our lives and were very ignorant with the world of drugs and drug addiction. Immediately we were scared to death for Nicholas and got him immediate help…During the next few years after High School was a struggle, to get him sober and stay sober. He did graduate hair school and double certified in hair and make-up, he had wanted to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and become a successful barbershop owner. He was highly talented and would easily give you the shirt off his back, he helped anyone he came in contact with and needed help. He had been an angel on earth in our eyes….Nicholas was so ashamed of his addiction and kept it hidden from anyone and everyone, until he realized he needed help. In October of 2011 we drove him 15 hours to Nashville, TN for inpatient rehabilitation, where he spent 3 months in an intensive men’s facility. He was so thrilled to have had the opportunity as he found himself, stayed sober, and was thrilled to have his life back….he was so sad to leave the sober facility but had to move on and decided to stay in Nashville, TN and moved into a sober living community. He really did GREAT, he was on 2 1st place softball teams, became a dairy manager at the Publix, was the host at his sober living community and sponsored 2 boys….Nicholas was clean a year and was set to come home September 3rd, 2012 for good and work with his grandfather. We got the call our son died of an overdose on August 18, 2012, the worst day of our lives…..How do we go on? How do we pick up the pieces….I really don’t know…we take it day by day, we pray, we try to make sense of it and we can’t…we miss and love nicholas so our very core…and I know so many are suffering the way our family is now….the picture I posted is my 21 year old beautiful son Nicholas, and his 12 year old brother who misses him every minute of each day!!!!
