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Personal Stories

Get advice and perspective from families who have also been impacted by substance use or addiction.

On September 1, 2014, I drove my oldest son in an overloaded car to Worcester State University.  I had never felt such pride in my 18 years of parenthood. I dreamt of this milestone. For months, I planned, shopped and looked toward an incredibly bright future.
Valentine’s Day is normally filled with roses and candy, happiness and memories of celebrating the ones we love. I had always been a mom to make a big deal of holidays and birthdays and just as I was staring at my son’s Valentine’s gift bag, our phone rang. At 8:37 pm, on February 14, 2021, our world changed forever.
On a Thursday morning in October, Sandy Snodgrass was given the news that no parent should ever have to hear. Her son, Robert Bruce Snodgrass, was found dead. He had died from a fentanyl overdose.
A decade ago, at the beginning of the opioid epidemic, my son, Corey, died of a heroin overdose at age 23. I knew so little about opioid addiction when Corey struggled. I didn’t know anyone with a child who had died, let alone from an overdose.
I sat down to tell Casey’s story and talk about what she and so many others go through, and how where there’s breath, there’s hope.
Substance use disorder is a family disease. I know how losing a brother can cause an irreversible ripple effect on the family.
The detective said to me, “If we had a 911 Good Samaritan law or a Narcan law, your son might very well be alive.”
“Tell them my story.” My 20-year-old daughter Casey said these words to me not long before she died of an accidental heroin overdose on January 15, 2017.