Widow says heroin ‘stole’ her husband
Sarah Robinson told a rapt audience of about 100 not to take loved one’s addiction personally.
“As a parent, a spouse, a loved one … best friend, we should view them as a sick person, rather than a bad person,” Robinson said. “It’s a true form of insanity.”
Robinson’s husband Mark Coligan of McDonald was 37 when he died of an overdose after years of struggling with heroin addiction two days before Christmas – a story Robinson told Saturday during a rally led by the group Western Pennsylvania’s Fight Against Addiction at Canonsburg Armory Youth Center.
Standing in front of a projected image of herself holding her daughter near Coligan’s open casket, Robinson told the audience: “Heroin stole my favorite person and robbed a little girl of her Papa. Addiction steals the life of more than just the addicted … We are left to pick up the pieces and carry on somehow.”
The event, which was sponsored by sponsored by the youth center, Harbor House Cafe and Washington’s Harmony Life Center was intended not only to highlight the need to combat the surging opioid epidemic but to bring attention to the devastation wrought by addiction in general.
Jeff Sipos, a member of the Harmony Center board, asked members of the audience who knew more than 20 people who’d died of overdoses.
“That’s 20 people or more,” he said, looking around the auditorium.
“We’ve got one hand up. Just one hand,” Sipos said, “We’re in a battle that we need to win.”
Among the other speakers were Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll; state Rep. Brandon Neuman, D-North Strabane; Jim Higgins, a group supervisor with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency; John Hopper, Harmony Life Center’s board president, and board secretary Bob Hedges.
Canonsburg Mayor David Rhome stressed the need for education and recovery services. He also urged those present to support their loved ones facing addiction disorders.
“The drug epidemic is not something that’s happening somewhere else,” Rhome said. “It’s happening right here in our hometowns, our home communities.”
M.J. Markley, founder and leader of the Western Pennsylvania’s Fight group – formerly the Washington Fight Against Heroin – echoed Rhome’s emphasis on education.
“Take everything you can out of this, that’s all I ask, that you spread it to your children,” Markley said. “That is the way to end this epidemic.”