Prom photo taken one week before Riley died.

A year ago, on June 1st, 2014, an article was published on the front page of the Sunday edition of The Arizona Republic Newspaper written by Karina Bland, a well known Arizona journalist. She wrote the article telling Riley’s story through her eyes as she read the very first post that I did on Facebook the day after Riley died, I HATE DRUGS!  I didn’t skip a beat, I screamed as loud as I could in my pain asking my friends to tell Riley’s story. I wrote it like I felt it. I told the facts as I knew them.

It was a nightmare that first day. It is an ongoing nightmare one year later. I held on for a long time that maybe I would wake up. That it wasn’t true. That Riley would walk around the corner and say, “Hi Mom”. That I would breath again. After a year of holding my breath, I’m sure it’s true. This is real and nothing will bring Riley back.

Riley is still with us in our hearts and memories. He is changing lives by his fate of trying a drug for the first time. I hate that! But if his story saves someone else from his fate then that’s a good thing in the midst of all the bad.

In the months of June and July, the use of drugs and alcohol spikes. Now is the time to share Riley’s story. The message to teens is: You are not invincible. It can happen. It can happen even on the first try. You don’t know what you are taking, smoking, drinking, inhaling. You can’t know how it will effect you. That curiosity, that temptation to try it is not worth the gamble of your life.

That’s what Riley would say.

I say, I HATE DRUGS!!

I Love You, Riley