BIZARRE BILLS
No more nudity or bestiality?
VERMONT’S INDEPENDENT VOICE JANUARY 25-FEBRUARY 01, 2017 VOL.22 NO.20 SEVENDAYSVT.COM
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The autopsy report said that there were signs that he was injecting into his foot. When the police searched his car, they found a bunch of needles in the spare tire. ˜ e detective’s conclusion was, he was hiding it from everybody. I think he was given pain medication and that probably set him off again. It was a detective, telling me my husband was dead. When we went to his apartment and cleared out his stuff, we found an application for a local school. I paid for him to go to rehab, and I asked him after, “You doing OK? You need to go back?” We always took her with us when we went shopping. She was cheerful, happy-go-lucky. I ended up talking to him, and he said, “I love you, kiddo,” and I said, “Love you, too.” You always think of things after the fact: Gee, could I have done something better? Later that night, he ended up leaving a last message, asking if he should put his wedding ring on, if we were going to work it out or not. He hugged me and went back to his part of the house. It was a happy visit because I didn’t get to see him enough. He said, “I want to start riding horses again.” I have horses at the farm. We were talking about finishing a woodstove we started building. She was cleaning that up, cleaning the cement off the stones. When I found her on Tuesday, she still had the kneepads on. ˜ e next morning, Doris tried to call her, and she didn’t answer the phone, but that wasn’t unusual because a lot of times she was doing stuff somewhere else. We didn’t think it was the final goodbye in the parking lot. It seemed like he had confronted his demons and was doing better. I think he made one slip, and that was it. I always say there ought to be a law against having to bury your kids. He was spending his whole paycheck on his addiction. She was as happy as I had ever seen her. All was good, or so I thought. His attitude was, “Let’s get this wedding all done, and then I will make this phone call and go through with all of this.” I hope it was peaceful, because he looked like he kind of went to sleep and didn’t wake up. He talked about going back and getting a master’s degree. ˜ ey’d go out for hikes, and they were making plans for the spring and summer. But it didn’t work out that way. He talked to everybody; he was his old self. I don’t think the drug use had been very long, but I have no way of knowing that. He looked terrible, but he was in good spirits. He had picked up a little dog, and he was thinking about getting into training rescue dogs. He had his heart set on it. He was joking around with his mother, making her laugh. I said, “You know, Adam, not many people get a second chance. You’re very fortunate you guys are back in each other’s lives.” I honestly thought that wasn’t going to happen to him. I knew it was a battle, but he wanted more out of life than that. A lot of people didn’t know my brother was an addict. Some of the greatest people are addicts. But there comes a point where you realize you’re not talking to the person you love anymore. You’re talking to the drugs. She struggled with alcoholism; she was going to AA but said nothing about any drugs. Her boyfriend said he had left and gone to the store and when he came home, she wasn’t breathing; she was blue. I still, to this day, walk by son’s urn every night to tell him good night. Every night. If he had to be around people, he’d take a little bit and get through it. People would look at him and didn’t know he was all screwed up. He came to church looking so good, I thought he had gotten away from it. It was maybe a week or so before the overdose. When my brother was normal, he’d just do anything for anybody. I noticed he had lost a little weight from the last time I had seen him. We dropped her off at her building, gave her a kiss and a hug. She came running up and said, “I can’t wake up Uncle Jared.” He was passed out over his computer, not breathing. ˜ ere was so much to look forward to. We were going to start having kids. He was supposed to go to camp on Friday to help his father with some stuff. ˜ ey were going to fix something. My daughter and I talked on the way home about how much better he looked, that he was in better spirits. When you saw Clark’s muscles were going away and he was getting skinny, you knew he was using. He said he’d never forgive himself for everything he put me through and he tried to get clean so hard and he just can’t do it. I seriously can’t remember the last time I told my son I loved him. It kills me. It seriously, seriously kills me. It was hard to talk to him about things he didn’t want to talk about. My last words were, “I love you,” and he said, “I love you, too.” I’m so grateful that it ended that way.
DEATH BY DRUGS In 2016, a record number of Vermonters died of opiate abuse B Y M A R K D AV I S , PA G E 3 0
CAPITAL CROWDS
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Scenes from inauguration weekend
ANTI-TERRORIST TACTICS Norwich students head off radicalism
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HOLA, HAVANA
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Cuban flavor in the NEK