On September 12, 2007 I lost my son, Nicholas Beinlich, as a result of heroine drug overdose. I never thought in a million years I would have ever experienced a tragedy like this, and as parents we all want to believe that our children are smarter than that. But what we fail to remember is that they are only kids and do make bad choices in life. My son’s bad choice cost him his life and our family a sadness that will be with us everyday.

One of the most important things I can stress is that this doesn’t just happen to children that have a history with alcohol or drug abuse, some may be experimenting and you have no idea. Nicholas was a well rounded kid that brought joy into the lives of everyone he touched (and yes at times a little stress too!). He spent his weekends with his grandpa enjoying his passion for race car driving and never showed signs of drug or alcohol abuse, so when the realization hit in on what happened, my family and I were besides ourselves.

Every parent wants to believe “Not my kid”, but the fact of the matter is, it can happen to your child. So it is now my goal to promote parents to talk to their kids and educate them before they think there is a problem.

Chrystal Beinlich