Lynne's Story

I recall when I was 8 or 9, I had developed a pretty nasty case of pneumonia. At that point, my home life had gone up in flames as my dad had come out of the closet and my mom was in an ever losing battle with her pill addiction.

I was lying on the sofa, extremely sick. My dad was on the computer gaming, largely ignoring me. My mom was completely zooted and talking nonsense. At one point she called me over to her and tried to get me to take what I am still pretty sure was just a Vicodin.

She insisted it was “lung medicine” that would help me clear out the mucus in my lungs. I believe she genuinely wanted to help me and may have thought that she was holding a mucinex or similar, but she was so far gone she couldn’t keep her eyes open and kept dropping the pill she was trying to force me to take.

I don’t remember if I took it.