I am always devastated when I hear about another woman who has died from addiction or mental illness. That overdose deaths have increased exponentially in recent years due to a tainted drug supply has not numbed me to the tragedy that every loss of life from addiction represents.
Whenever a young person, in particular, dies from addiction or mental illness, everybody always talks about how they are "gone too soon." We hear it over and over again. I think and say it myself, a lot.
Of course they're gone too soon. They are gone too soon because they are young, and they are gone too soon because we needed more time to let them know we cared; we needed more time to try to help.
We so often have regrets about loved ones dying before we were able to do or say something, so we need to act as if there is no tomorrow. Except I don't mean in the old way we used to think about it when we were using drugs or drinking.
It's more about asking ourselves what we would do for and say to that person today if we didn't have tomorrow? And then we need to say and do it.