Confessions of a Heroin Addict's Mother

Eva Summerhill's understanding of how one achieves success in life used to be summed up by the many clich s about hard work. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again." "Your hard work will eventually pay off." "Just put some elbow grease into it." That understanding changed drastically over time with her son's change in interests. The progression went something like this: family, play dates, private school, cello recitals, soccer games, experimenting with drugs, using harder drugs, wilderness therapy, rehab, heroin, relapses, arrests, homelessness, jail, overdoses. What happened to her child? Where could she have gone so wrong? How can she fix this? What about try, try again? Eva had one really important job to do and she had failed miserably. Helping him became her obsession; her sole focus. If he was not well how could she be?

Eva became an accidental writer. Through letters, journals, text conversations, and poems she created tools that she hoped would save her child, but they may ultimately have saved them both.

May the reader learn through Eva's mistakes, trials, lessons, and triumphs; how to go on living a meaningful life despite being faced with their child's addictions and their shattered expectations of what could have been.