OLD BRIDGE – Old Bridge National Drug Awareness Day featured nationally-recognized addiction speaker Kevin Moran of the Hegarty-Scalia Home for Funerals on Route 9.
More than 200 families and friends of people who lost loved ones to addiction attended the event on Aug. 31, which was hosted by Families Against Addiction.
Along with Old Bridge Mayor Owen Henry and State Sen. Sam Thompson (R-Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean) , Moran spoke candidly about his front line battle dealing firsthand with deaths from heroin, pills and other drugs, according to information provided by the funeral home.
Moran has conducted more than 150 drug overdose funerals the past few years. He touched upon how he sees parents torn apart, families shattered and young children grow up parentless, according to the statement.
He explained that the funeral of an overdose death is radically different compared to “typical” funerals, or that of an elderly person who has lived a full life. Families are being robbed of the time and opportunity to create previous memories, parents having grandchildren, a father walking his daughter down the aisle, or a parent watching their baby grow and mature, according to the statement.
He went onto explain the effects the drugs have taken upon the person who was using, how they physically changed, along with the emotional changes the death has brought upon the family.
He also said that he is not immune to feeling the pain he sees people going through, as he himself is a parent.
Moran has been speaking on this topic for the past four years. He speaks at Scared Straight seminars, drug rehabilitation centers, elementary and high school, and seminars hosted by the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office in Staten Island, New York.