Daniel McGowan

Submitted by Katrina DelBosque

Daniel was an amazing spirit he had so much love for others. He was fun to be around and always knew how to make you smile. He was my only son and he is truly missed. Daniel had struggled with ADHD and mild depression for several years it began in school due to his frustration with succeeding. He began self medicating or self numbing as I call it. Counseling and several drug rehabs later the level only increased as he aged. I remember one of the last conversations I had with him regarding a show I had watched about addicts and the number of them who had died all of the stories seemed so similar and so like him that I told him I feared the same fate for him as well. He agreed with me saying he thought that was how he would die as well thinking he was invincible only to find out to late he wasn’t. He wasn’t tying to be rude or hurt my feeling I think he just understood something I didn’t that the drugs owned his soul and he wasn’t going to fight it. This conversation was 2 days before I got the call he had died… He died in a filthy apartment the people who were with him called him a good kid who had the best night of his life. They left him to sleep after shooting up heroin and came back to find him barely breathing they decided to try and wake him by putting him in a cold shower. When this didn’t work they told their mom and she called 911 knowing he was ODing he died 2hrs later. He died 7 days before his 19th birthday 6days before Christmas and 8 days before his scheduled rehab.