Benjamin John Burke

Submitted by: Theresa Burke
Born: 1984
Died: 2012
My Tribute: Ben was my son–a shy, humble young man who battled heroin addiction bravely and openly.
He did everything humanly and spiritually possible to get well, but the disease took him after a 5 year battle. His family does not believe his overdose was an accident. He gave up. He was exhausted and depleted and had just completed 6 months clean. He had restored everything that mattered most…his friends, family and his God. Rather than risk losing everything again, he killed his addict with his favorite weapon–heroin. Ben never had a choice after the first time he tried it. His words: “My brain is wired to kill me.” Heroin took his body but not his soul. May God forgive anyone who says that a heroin addict deserves to die. Would you say that to a person fighting cancer? It is the same. Ben didn’t want to die, but dying became a better choice than living one more day as a heroin addict. Thats how much fun he was having! I miss my son so much, the grief still takes me down like a grenade when I least expect it. I admire Ben’s courage and faith. On the morning he died he went to church and to his favorite AA meeting, he had been praying the rosary for months and had gone to confession. He called us to say goodbye, but we didn’t realize what he was preparing to do. He came home to die while we were on vacation. He died on Palm Sunday 2012. His body laid on my kitchen floor for four days before it was found. We continue to heal as we realize that all of our prayers were answered, just not in the way that we thought! Ben is clean and whole and finally free.