“I lost my younger sister to a heroin overdose. She had a wonderful, artistic talent, recognised at an early age.
“At the age of 14, she was smoking pot. When she was 15, she started hanging around with a boy who was a ‘good friend.’ He recommended a ‘better, mellower high than pot.’ That was when she met heroin.
“She was expelled from an arts school only a couple of months after she started. At age 22 she called me and said she was in a halfway house.
“She stayed clean for a little more than a year and then she relapsed. We will never know why—only from what we read in her journals. Her addiction was a fight for her life every day.
“One morning my phone rang and my father was on the line. He told me, ‘they say she’s dead.’ I was screaming and sobbing uncontrollably. I will never forget that moment.” —Megan
