Kathleen Schneider

Executive Assistant, mother, lonely sister

Right after my 16th birthday I lost my best friend, my big sister. She took 4 bottles of tranquilizers. I was wrecked, but had to keep going for my baby brother. He was my whole world since the day he was born. He was like my first child, I did everything for him, I am 8.5 years older than him so he was my baby. He got me through the loss of my sister. Fast forward 22 years, my baby brother and my everything overdosed on meth and fentenyl. I'm now an only child. I've been the youngest, then the middle, the the oldest and now I'm an only child. My poor father lost 3 siblings and 2 kids in similar circumstances. I'm a mother of 4 boys and I always said my brother was my first baby and I called him "baby Michael" his whole life. I named one of my sons after him. I told him right before he died that he was still my baby and would always have a special place in my heart. He cried and I saw a glimpse of his pain. Its been almost a year now and I'm still wallowing in denial. He was incredibly smart and kind and had a sharp sense of humor. He stopped for people with broken down cars to help them, he jumped off a bridge to save a man that was trying to kill himself and did cpr, he wasn't able to save him, but he tried. He was a great man. Addiction is horrid and has given me so much pain in my life. There's a lot more to the story, we had different mothers,his was horrible. She didn't even come to the funeral even though I gave her all the details and genuinely hoped she at least be there for him in death. I'd be happy to tell you more, theres tons, I just don't know how much info you want. The photo is of my sister and brother when they were both still here.i have a million photos but that one just feels like they are walking away from me, together at last.