The eulogy delivered by the mother of a 23 year-old woman who died from a heroin overdose is the talk of the Internet – and a desperate call for attention to what has become a devastating epidemic in America.

“I have been asked by so many people to share my daughter’s eulogy that I wrote and read at her funeral,” writes Kathleen Mary about her daughter, Kelsey Grace Endicott, on Facebook. “I am more than happy to do so. Hopefully it will work as many miracles as her obituary has. We need to talk and educate the world about this epidemic.”

“My beautiful Kelsey Grace….I hope as you are looking down from Heaven that you are FINALLY able to see how much you were adored, admired, and so so loved. The amount of people that have been affected by your death is a true testament to the impact you had on everyone you met in your 23 short years of life,” Kathleen goes on to say.

“Never ever did I think that God would decide to call you home so soon. It has been many long, hard, agonizing battles for the last few years and you fought like a warrior every step of the way. Addiction however, won the war.”

She continued: “She looked in her own distorted mirror and this is what her reflection displayed; and these are her own words: ‘I am someone who is determined, insecure, emotional, neurotic, shameful, cunning, angry and honest. I am everything but simple. I hate being alone yet am addicted to the feeling of sorrow and depression. I am a person who is too insecure to be loved and terrified to be broken. I am hard on the outside but an emotional train wreck deep within the heart’.”

"Her addiction told her she wasn’t worthy or deserving,” Kathleen writes. “She turned to drugs to make her feel normal like everyone else. Heroin told her I can make you feel accepted, I can make you feel alright, I can make you feel worthy, I can make you feel normal, I can make you feel loved, I can make you feel nothing and make you feel like everything will be ok. What it didn’t tell her was how it would devastate her family and tear it apart, how it would take her job and leave her penniless, how it would steal her son from her arms , how it would take her home , how it would take her sparkle, how it would take her smile, how it would take her humor and how it would take and take and take until it took her life.”

Kelsey died on April 2.

In the last decade, heroin abuse in the United States has reached record levels with an estimated 200 people per 100,000 addicted to the drug. The number of overdose deaths related to heroin has increased 286 percent in the last decade. Presently, 125 Americans die every day to a drug related overdose.

Too many parents are mourning the loss of children who, like Kelsey, died much too young.

“Kelsey was just 10 months shy of sobriety and was due to move home in 2 months but God had other plans. He saw her constant struggle and decided to finally let her find peace. He knew Camden was loved and safe and it was time to have Kelsey feel the same.”

Let us keep this family, and all those who suffer with addiction, in our prayers!

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