Parents of an Ellington man who lost his life to heroin want others to hear their son's story as a warning to others about the dangers of opioid addiction.
Tim Lally died in January after being rushed to Rockville General Hospital suffering from a heroin overdose. The Lallys received a call at 5 a.m. from a doctor.
"Tim was there. He was brought in on an apparent heroin overdose," John Lally, Tim's father said. "They told us he'd been in cardiac arrest, his heart had stopped. We went to the emergency room, my wife and I ran down there, I called our other son, he ran down there and we met at the emergency room and found out that Tim was kicked out of the sober home days before, even before he was here to visit and he never told us."
Tim died 36 hours later when John and his wife, Laura, decided to take Tim off life support.
His parents describe him as a happy kid, who's downfall began with anxiety and depression. That led to Tim using pot, prescription pain pills and eventually heroin. He had been in and out of treatment, but went back to using.
"There's a stigma about people who abuse drugs, who are addicts," John said. "Many of us in society think of these as bad people, as throw-aways, as 'well, they brought it on themselves, they deserve what they get. Why should we spend tax dollars, why should we go out of our way to help people who intentionally destroy themselves.'"
John blames bad choices for his son's path to heroin. He wants others to understand that heroin addiction happens in families regardless of race, location, status or education.
"Tim struggled with drug abuse for 2 or 3 years that we knew of, and we didn't share with friends or family, so I understand that, but when Tim died, we decided 'we got to stop this, we have to talk about this.' People have to understand, this doesn't, this happens to good people from good families, and it can happen anywhere in any town," John said.
The Lallys now have their memories, and a favorite photo of Tim perched on the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland.
"I look at him, I look at that smile and I remember what a good person he was, and how much love was in him and how much we miss him and how much we'll always miss him," John said.
Photo Credit: Family Photo