Courtesy of Hayley Folk
- Four years ago, at the age of 45, my mom died of a drug overdose.
- She struggled with addiction her whole life and had been in and out of treatment.
- I share my and her story to help others going through the same things we went through.
It had been a few days since my mother was found unresponsive, face down on the floor. I was sitting on the side of Pacific Coast Highway in my then-lover's parked car when they asked me whether I had considered how she died: "Is there a chance she overdosed?"
No, I hadn't thought of that — not yet. There would have been too much shame for her in that.