NOVEMBER 27, 2015, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A9
GIFT,
continued from Page A1
“It was disastrous,” Eliza-
beth said. “Bottles and weed
were everywhere. Her dad
kicked her out and called me.
Her Facebook page was on the
computer and it was open to
messages about getting heroin.
She had shot up on heroin.
That was the night she almost
died.”
Samantha had gone to a
house with other users, shot
up and passed out. When she
stopped breathing, no one
knew what to do.
“The next day, I found her
on River Road, walking with
a friend,” Elizabeth said, not-
ing Samantha believes her best
friend and grandpa saved her.
“I drove past her. She was so
bloated and dirty, I didn’t rec-
ognize her at fi rst. I fl ipped a
u-turn and stopped. They were
both high on heroin. I asked
her to get in my car. Once
she did, after she looked at
me like a zombie, I told her I
knew everything and I would
do anything to get her help.
She asked, ‘Why? Why do you
care?’ If she only could have
understood.”
Elizabeth got her daughter
a sandwich and made her take
a shower before taking her to
the emergency room.
“I was terrifi ed,” Elizabeth
said. “I had no idea what her-
oin does or possible reactions.
When I brought her home, my
husband and my other daugh-
ter Erica just sat there. No one
really knew what to do or say
to someone who was clearly
high and out of her mind. You
sure don’t read that in a parent-
ing book.”
Things only got worse from
there.
“She yelled at Erica,” Eliza-
beth recalled. “Erica went into
her room and cried. Erica was
16 at the time and didn’t un-
derstand why Sam was mak-
ing these choices. Sam was all
strung out, but she felt bad
about she’d done to her sister.
Erica told her, ‘You’ve always
been my hero and promised
you would be there for me.
You’re breaking my heart and
killing yourself.’”
That ended up being Sa-
mantha’s turning point. Break-
ing her sister’s heart was the
worst feeling in the world for
her, so Samantha agreed to get
help.
Elizabeth took Samantha
to the ER, then brought her
home and stayed with her for
three days and nights as her
daughter went through severe
withdrawals from heroin.
“Watching someone with-
drawal off of heroin is awful,”
Elizabeth said. “She couldn’t
even walk to the bathroom. I
had to help her to the bath-
room. She couldn’t keep food
down. I shut down into emer-
gency crisis mode.”
As if seeing her daughter
nearly die of a heroin overdose
wasn’t bad enough, the next
step was just as tough in a dif-
ferent way: trying to fi nd a way
“You have to empower
to help Samantha.
your loved one to believe in
“The hardest part is fi nding themselves and to fi ght for
help,” Elizabeth said. “There their sobriety,” Elizabeth said.
was not a list of names or a “If not, you’re crippling them.”
website with names out there.
In another example, Jim had
I never imagined I would fi nd a parent sit in a chair while he
myself in this world.”
portrayed an addict struggling
Elizabeth found out about to cross the room to sobriety.
Hazelden Treatment Center in The parent wasn’t able to get
Newberg, with her mom pay- out of the chair to help, mean-
ing the co-pay to get Samantha ing Jim had to fi ght to get
in. Three weeks later Samantha himself across the room.
was kicked out, with the rec-
“A lot of parents were angry
ommendation
when we got
to check out
down there,”
Balboa Hori-
Elizabeth said.
zons in South-
“Erica and I
ern California,
were. We did
a 90-day rehab
an emotional
program. In-
check-in every
surance picked
day. Through-
up the bill and
out the week,
Samantha was
the anger was
on her road to
lessened be-
recovery.
cause you start
While Sa-
to understand
mantha was at
what you are
Balboa, Eliza-
dealing with.
beth and Erica
When
you
went down for
don’t under-
family week,
stand, the fear
where family
— Elizabeth Smith o v e r w h e l m s
members are
you. It’s usu-
taught about
ally
because
the addiction.
you’re scared
Elizabeth had the stereotypical to death.”
image of drug addicts coming
Among other things, Eliza-
from trashy-looking families in beth learned that when youth
mind.
become addicted to drugs at a
“We walked in and I young age, the frontal cortex
thought it would be all these of the brain’s growth is stunted,
drug addicts,” she said. “But it leading to obsessive behavior
was families that looked just and allowing impulses to take
like us. I started crying, just over. In other words, things
broke down. It was so good to aren’t fi ring correctly in the
know I wasn’t alone.”
addict’s brain.
Elizabeth, who is still friends
“The drugs stop their ma-
with some of the families she turity,” Elizabeth said. “They
met that week, said Jim, the don’t have the necessary logic
class instructor, taught about or the stop zone, because the
enabling. For example, often control center hasn’t kicked in
parents of addicts will make yet.”
conditions such as buying the
For Samantha, Balboa Ho-
addict a car if they get clean.
rizons was an answer to prayers
as it put her on the road to re-
covery. In May 2013, she did a
video for Balboa, telling about
We have years of experience in
design, carpentry, and engineering.
her story.
We won’t stop until the job is
“It was really cool, because
fi nished and you are content.
like most people I’ve talked
Our long list of satisfi ed
to here, I haven’t really had
clients attest to our ability
the close relationships with
to get the job done right.
women,” Samantha said in the
video. “Coming to Balboa, in
an all-girl’s facility, we really
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“No one really
knew what
to do or say
to someone
who was
clearly high
and out of
her mind.”
was like family support.”
After her time at Balboa,
Samantha moved into a so-
ber living house with several
friends she made at Balboa.
They had to stay clean, do ran-
dom urine tests three times a
week and went through a 12-
step AA process. Samantha and
two others then moved into a
condo, followed the same rules
and went to work at rehab fa-
cilities.
“The biggest thing is to
have a lot of people around
you who understand, who’ve
been through the same battles,”
Elizabeth said. “I’d love for her
to be at home, but Orange
County is the largest area for
rehab and sober living. Plus
it’s sunny around there, which
is so nice for addicts with de-
pression. She needs to have a
sober support group of people
her age. That is lacking in the
Salem/Keizer area. The people
she’s with down there, she can’t
bullshit them. An addict can
spot an addict faster than any-
one and is so quick to call you
on it. They’ve all been through
it.”
By contrast, Elizabeth said
there’s a lack of awareness of
the issue in Keizer.
“This town needs to wake
up,” she said. “People assume
it will never happen to them.
We want to bring awareness to
Keizer. We’ve got to talk about
it and have these conversa-
tions. When one more kid gets
buried, that breaks my heart.
We live in a nice neighbor-
hood and look like the typical
American family. Don’t ever
think it can’t happen to your
child.”
After Samantha was on the
road to recovery, Elizabeth
reached out to the young man
that was with her daughter
shortly after her overdose.
“He came from a good
Christian family, in a nice
Keizer neighborhood,” Eliza-
beth said. “His parents both
worked during the day and he
did heroin while they worked.
He said he didn’t think his par-
ents would listen. I told him,
‘You’d be amazed. It’s a lot
better for them to learn it now
than to fi nd out after you’re
dead.’ Sam said he got his life
together and is married now.”
Elizabeth would like to have
a public meeting in Keizer to
talk about the issue and would
like to see more treatment op-
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“We need to develop a
website of resources,” she said.
“Oregon is lacking the re-
sources. I had to go out of
state to save my daughter. That
needs to be addressed. Balboa
needs to open a place up here.
We have people dying left and
right. You need to get them
around people who’ve been
there because they speak their
language. I don’t speak it, but
they do. There are no things
like narcotics anonymous for
young people up here.”
Elizabeth has suggestions
for parents.
“Watch your pain pills,” she
said. “Watch your medicine
cabinet, your prescriptions,
your kids. It’s just way too easy
for them to get their hands on
the pills. Don’t bring pain meds
into your house. It’s so impor-
tant that we talk about it. We’re
losing an entire generation to
prescription medications. A lot
of kids are dying because they
got into heroin more than they
thought they would.”
Even though her daughter
is doing better, Elizabeth bat-
tles living in fear.
“The risk of relapse is real,”
she said. “It’s always going to
be a threat. A relapse can always
happen. I am always on edge. I
sleep with my phone next to
the bed, just waiting for that
call. I pray it never comes. I’m
more afraid of that knock on
the door in the middle of the
night.”
Elizabeth put the struggle
into simple terms.
“It’s like staring down the
devil,” she said. “I’m not going
to blink.”
The whole experience has
left Elizabeth infuriated, espe-
cially in regards to how dealers
get youth started.
“They give it away at par-
ties just to hook them,” said
Elizabeth, who has shared all
the information and contact
information from Facebook
messages with police to help
their efforts. “You know how
we tell our kids don’t take
candy from a stranger? It’s the
same with drugs. If you knew
taking that one hit, to give
you that high, could end up
like Sam that next day, unable
to walk, throwing up because
every muscle in her body hurt,
you’d realize it’s not worth it.
It’s horrifying. Plus it could kill
you the fi rst time.”
Having watched her friends
Jeff and Hollie Crist bury their
son Brandon, who died at the
age of 22 in September due to
a heroin overdose, Elizabeth
knew she had to publicly share
her family’s story. She posted
about it recently on Facebook
and willingly shared the story
with this paper in the hopes
of making people aware of the
dangers.
“The one person who was
going to call 9-1-1 to save
Samantha’s life that night was
Brandon Crist. I don’t believe
we’ve gone through this to
just be quiet about it,” Eliza-
beth said. “We would miss the
whole point.”
APRIL & BRIAN McVAY
503.510.6827
mcvaythree@gmail.com
BORN, RAISED,
& RESIDING IN KEIZER
Sam Goesch
Ins Agcy Inc
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3975 River Road North
Keizer, OR 97303
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