Group offers support, understanding to people who lost loved one to substance use disorder

Editor:

Leigh and I have been on a grief journey since June 1, 2019, the day our son Mark passed from a substance use overdose.

There have been times when we were angry, sad, frustrated, and depressed – sometimes separately, sometimes all at once. There are so many others who have shared this experience, and too many who are, and sadly will. This madness of the opioid epidemic has to stop!

Orleans Recovery – Hope Begins Here, Suite 190, 243 South Main Street in Albion, offers “Missing Angels” a program to help those coping with grief from substance use passing.

Orleans Recovery offers this program as an outreach to the citizens of Orleans County, Genesee County, western Monroe County, and eastern Niagara County in Western New York. Leigh and I are happy to do this, to be A Voice For Mark, in this continuing struggle.

Leigh and I have had the opportunity to share this mission with so many others from so many walks of life. Some lessons learned: it does not benefit anyone to stigmatize the person who has passed – addiction is a disease, not a character flaw.

Many who have suffered from the disease have recovered, and work daily to maintain their recovery – their loved ones also deserve support and recognition. Memorials for our loved ones, pictures, paintings, or other items provide a place for us – parents, grandparents, siblings, relatives and friends – to heal as well and to keep their memory alive.

Missing Angels meets the first and third Thursday of each month either in person or online meeting. Meetings are held at Orleans Recovery. Please contact us at 585-721-7332  or chuckandleighkinsey@gmail.com for detailed information.

We welcome any and all who have gone through this horrible experience of living with, and losing, a loved one who has suffered with, and died from a substance use disorder.

You are not alone in your grief.

Chuck and Leigh Kinsey

Clarendon