It had to be Richard. The child we loved...

It had to be Richard. The child we loved most. Who drifted from school to college, to politics, to protest, to drugs and despair. The boy with no friends who saw injustice everywhere. The young man who was always alone. I knew about the drugs long before you did. “They’re like alcohol or tobacco, Mom; they’re ok if you know what you’re doing.” The most passionate I ever heard him speak. What do you say? How do you reach out to a twenty-three year old when you’re over fifty and you have no idea the life he leads? How could I have stopped him? What could I have done? I saw the hurt. I never understood where it came from, I could never put it right, but I could see it, I could feel it. And he died from it, David, he died, he died!

Foreman, Martin. Sunset, Arbery Publications, 2013, pp. 50-51.