Ron Van Stight (Pt.1 of 3)

Addictions have had a great impact on my families life, all on my mother's side. There were three people in our lives who have three very different addictions, two of them are still with us. My uncle Ron had an addiction to drugs. It started innocently enough with pot smoking in high school and drinking on weekends with his friends. As he got a little older, though not much older, his taste for being high began to consume his life. He would take acid or mushrooms just to get that "euphoric" feeling, and when that wasn't enough, he started to snort cocaine. When taht was no longer giving him the feeling he longed for he turned to the mother of all drugs at that time...heroin. It consumed him. He began to sell his belongings just to buy enough for a day. He lied and stole from my grandparents. He told my mom, who was 13 at the time, that it was like having all your cares washed away in an instant. He compared it to getting your all time favorite treat just when you needed it the most, and it was completely satisfying. Smoking it eventually didn't have the desired affect, so he began to shoot it. It wasn't long after that choice, he was at a party and several of his friends were all shooting it up, so he did too. They all used the same needles, and that was a fatal choice. One of them had hepatitis and he got very sick. By the time he went to the doctor, it was too late. He died four days after being admitted to the UBC hospital. No other hospital would admit him because in the 80's haptitis was highly contagious and deadly 8 out of 10 times. He slipped into a coma and then all of his organs started to fail one by one, until eventually the only thing keeping him alive was the machines. Together my moms family had to decide to let him go. He was 21 when his life ended very sunddenly from stupid and tragic circumstances, all because he made some poor choices in life. Sometimes I wish he were still here, so I could get a chance to meet him. My mom says he was an amazing person, full of love of life, and sincere devotion to his family...until the drugs came along.