TJ graduated in June 2021 at the age of 18, he was just beginning to learn how to be an adult. He had gotten his first full time job working at Walmart distribution center. He was in a 5 year relationship with a beautiful girl Sarah and had been contemplating enlisting in the military. In January he let me know he planned on asking her to marry him in June when we had a trip planned to go to the Outer Banks. He had been struggling with depression and started using oxycodone to cope. On the night of Feb 17th he was hanging out with his friend at his dad’s house and they had used what he thought was oxycodone. At 3:13 am I was called by my other son and he was saying TJ had stopped breathing and that they were doing CPR and 911 had been called. I raced over there as fast as I could. I arrived at 3:34 am and the EMS workers were doing CPR on my son, he was incubated and they were using the defibrillator to try to develop a rhythm. I kept telling them he admitted to using oxycodone. Merely 7 minutes later at 3:41 am they pronounced my son dead. 18 years old and 18 minutes of CPR from EMS. He was never given Narcan and he wasn’t transferred to a higher level of care. It took almost 3 months to find out that it was fentanyl as a cause of death and my son was poisoned.

This is a kid who would give you the shirt off his back. He loved to cook, play video games, build computers, and he loved life. He gave the best hugs and could make anyone laugh with his silly antics, dances, and playful ways.

I never imagined that Feb 15th, 2022 would be the last huge hug I would get. The last time I would hear him say I love you mom. We had so many more memories to make.