“The diaper bag, the car seat, the bottles, the pacifiers, the changing mat, the wipes, and all the toys in their primary colored glory; none of which would compliment my outfit.”

“I still loved him. I never stopped loving him, and never stopped hoping that he would fall back in love with me as well.”

“So, how’s big Kev?”“Oh, you mean my father?”“Yeah.”“He may be six-foot-five, but you’re a much bigger person, Dad.”

“I don’t know why you’re crying… but I hope it’s because you’re as in love with me half as much as I am in love with you.”

“One drunken evening filled with passion, carelessness and Jagermeister.”

“My daughter, Carly, has been in and out of drug treatment facilities since she was thirteen. Every time she goes away, I have a routine: I go through her room and search for drugs she may have left behind. We have a laugh these days because Carly says, “So you were lookingfor drugs I might have left behind? I’m a drug addict, Mother. We don’t leave drugs behind, especially if we’re going into treatment. We do all the drugs. We don’t save drugs back for later. If I have drugs, I do them. All of them. If I had my way, we would stop for more drugs on the way to rehab, and I would do them in the parking lot of the treatment center.”

“I thought over and over about what I was going to do when Carly overdosed and died. How would we go on? And then I knew: I wouldn’t go on. And then I realized that it was just going to be too painful to actually have to watch her die. Right in front of me. My daughter was dying. That’s when I snapped.”