Bridgewater Parents Share Story Of Daughter's Heroin Overdose

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — It is letters like this that will bring tears to your eyes and at the same time open them.

Bridgewater parents Jack and Nora Luftman lost their 18-year-old daughter to a heroin overdose and they are speaking publicly to shed light on this issue growing in not only the township but across the state.

Since Hannah's death in October of 2013, the Luftman's have been using her college fund money for drug abuse awareness.

The letter was sent to Bridgewater resident and mother Holly Lange, who stated a group, "Bridgewater Residents Stopping Drugs" in December. It already has almost 400 members.

Lange formed the group to stop drugs in the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District. She is currently collecting letters from students, parents and community members, which can be anonymous, to share their own drug experiences or what they have witnessed in the schools, specifically the high school.

Lange will present the letters to BRHS Principal Mark Morrell on Jan. 29 as evidence of the ongoing issue in the high school.

An Open Letter By The Luftmans:

Most of us get second chances. We count on getting another chance when we make a mistake, a chance to apologize, or to make things right, or try again.

It was Oct. 10, 2013 when the phone startled us out of our sleep at 6 a.m. It was the emergency room doctor. Half an house later we were standing over our lifeless 18-year-old daughter. She had died the previous night of a heroin overdose.

As far as we know, it was the first time she had used heroin. She did not get a second chance.

How did we not see this coming? Hannah was a happy girl who had graduated from Bridgewater-Raritan Regional High School four months earlier. She was working and going to community college. We had never ever seen her with a drink, or a cigarette in her hand.

But mid-summer, there came a personality change — lying and other strange behaviors. These were the red flags, and we missed them.

Would we like a second chance, a "do over?" You be we would. There are so many things we would do differently. But engaging in the game of "coulda/shoulda/woulda" is a painful and futile exercise.

It was some time in 2010, our family was sitting at the dinner table. Both of our kids were in the high school at the time. One of them said, matter-of-factly, "Oh, you can get any drugs you want in the cafeteria at lunch." I remember being dumbfounded. "What??" But I did nothing.

In retrospect, I feel ashamed to say that I dismissed the notion that this was something that could somehow impact MY family.

Denial. Apathy. Silence. These are the enemy.

I implore every person reading this to BELIEVE that this is a problem. It is here. It is now. It is real.

For Hannah, it is too late. She did not get a second chance. And for us, every parents' worst nightmare became our reality.

Please do not sit by in silence and think this cannot happen to you and those you love. It is not too late.

Jack and Nora Luftman, Bridgewater

To learn more or to join Bridgewater Residents Stopping Drugs visit the Facebook group here. To submit a letter to Lange about drug usage at the high school email brstoppingdrugs@gmail.com.

• See Related: Bridgewater Locals Form Group To Stop Drugs In Schools

(Image via brucecvanarsdalefuneralhome.com)

Have a news tip? Email alexis.tarrazi@patch.com.

Get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our new app. Download here.