My son, Michael Robert, fought bravely his struggles with drugs for many years. We nearly lost him at age 21. He was in the hospital and rehab for PT and mental therapy for months but he made it back to us. He went diligently to many NA meetings etc.

But at age 28 on August 19, 2014 we lost him. Not a day goes by that I do not think about him and cry and cry and cry. I cry so much and so long and so hard that I cry myself out He was a brilliant young man with a B.S. from Hofstra as well as a Master's degree and he was working on his Ph.D. also.

And he was a stat athlete. I thought he had it all. But I can recall one day when he turned to me and said:"Dad I have to stay clean." I never saw him as addicted but he was. Was it my divorce? Was it his mom's drinking problems? What was it?

I guess we will never really know what it was and it bothers me every day.

My other son Brian (no drugs) is depressed (as am I) but we struggle on. Brian is on track to be a pharmacist. But you see one lesson I have learned in all this is that SMARTS does mean much when it comes to drug addiction.

You can NEVER replace a human. Was he a lost soul? One person said at the wake "He was troubled." I guess he was.

I really think he never got over his mom's drinking etc.