Our View: Video highlights all-too-common conversation
October 18, 2016
Six days ago, a Youngstown man had to tell his 8-year-old son that the boy’s mother had died of a heroin overdose.
The father, Brenden Bickerstaff-Clark, posted a video on YouTube of the heartbreaking moment. Viewers could only watch as the boy listened to the news with disbelief and quickly broke down in tears. After a few moments of comforting his son, Bickestaff-Clark turned to the camera and said, “That’s enough.”
The video quickly went viral, with some reacting with compassion and others criticizing Bickestaff-Clark of making a private moment public.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, 2015 saw 1,155 accidental deaths related to heroin in the state. Last year, 1,155 Ohio families experienced a moment like the 8-year-old in the video.
With so many people affected by the heroin epidemic, bringing the reality of the drug to the public is a way for some to work towards ending the crisis, no matter the means in which they do it.
In The Kent Stater’s Monday heroin edition, Morgan Kreptowski wrote a column sharing her own story of seeing her boyfriend through addiction, which sadly ended in a fatal overdose.
Bickerstaff-Clark, a recovering addict himself, wrote on Facebook: “This is for any and every addict with children. Today I had to tell my 8 year old son that his mommy died from a drug overdose last night. This is the realization and reality of our disease. Don’t let this disease have to make someone tell your child that you’re dead because of drugs.”
Whether it’s believed that his decision to post the video was valiant or exploitive, a few things are clear: Heroin is real, it’s destructive and it doesn’t care who it affects.