This is the life story of a much loved son. It spells out in detail the emotional impact that results from her son's descent into drug and alcohol addiction and mirrors the pain and fear of the family members. Told in a simplistic way it details how the family coped as one crisis followed another with no apparent appropriate help available to them. The author uses passages lifted from diaries and poetry written by herself at the time and also some of her son's writing to illustrate the loneliness and despair he experienced. However there is a twist to this story for something very positive resulted from this trauma and includes a message of bravery and hope for the reader. David, the son in question, overcame his addiction, recovered and went on to a very worthwhile career in counselling where he became an advocate for drug users and their families and was instrumental in setting up other initiatives in the drugs field including his involvement in Community Drug Helpline.