I've lost personally way too many friends, my ex, fiance, you know, and just so many loved ones. And this disease is insidious. It doesn't let up, so neither can we. And it doesn't matter what people say or think. We're going to keep fighting a day at a time. I was just sick and tired of living the way that I was. I knew that I was meant to do something more. And um I couldn't do
1:00that using. That was for sure. Right.
1:02Like this little cliche thing they if you see a diamond, you put it in a drawer. That's you getting and it's all gets full of the crud and stuff. That's you getting high or sometimes not even addiction. You could have an addiction to other things, not just substances.
1:15Once you start to clean that up, you don't realize how shiny and bright that diamond really was and how beautiful you are. And and me personally, beauty has no agenda. So like I love all people and I love my community. Like and wherever I step on a daily basis, I got to represent change, recovery, peace at all times. I'm not perfect, but I'm far ahead of where I was. We went through
1:37many, many nights and many days of worrying and not knowing what you and then we went through the great days when she was going to school. She's doing all the right things and then all of a sudden it fell apart. Well, don't let it fall apart on you. Her son is now 24 years old and this happened when he was 16 and believe me, he's doing everything his mother wanted him to do. And that's
2:05not by mistake. It's by want and need to do the things that are right. I'm proud of what she accomplished. It didn't end the way we wanted to, but while her time was here, most of it was really good.
2:19And she helped a lot of people too along the way. And people have come up to me and told me that if it wasn't for her, they wouldn't be here today.