Perhaps good will come
from story of heroin addict
Kelly, the young woman profiled in the article "Carson's Heroin Connection," was someone who was struggling with an addiction that was more powerful than all the good intentions she had to fight it.
Her parents tried in vain to help her but the addiction was even stronger than all the encouragement, pleading and tough love that they threw her way. Likewise, her brothers wanted desperately to regain the sister they knew and loved, but the control over Kelly was too powerful for even her big brother, Chris, whom she looked up to, or her "little" brother, Cody, for whom she wanted to set an example to battle.
For those who are so quick and thoughtless to cast stones at this family for not doing all they could to get treatment for her, know that if drugs have not touched your life in this horrible and tragic way, then you should be thankful for your good fortune. This family was not so lucky.
Linda and Ron agreed to be interviewed for this story to help other families see what they did not, and to perhaps save someone else's daughter from such a tragic ending.
They may never meet the people whose child they saved because they were brave enough to let the world get a glimpse at their broken hearts but those people do exist and, for that, Linda and Ron can know that Kelly did not die in vain. We miss her very much.
SUZANNE WOLF
(Sister of Linda Barr)
Phoenix