May 2018

My name is Carol Robertson and I am a parishioner at Immaculate Conception. I own and operate a landscaping company, Garden Imprint here in Newburyport.

In 2014, I hired a young college student named Joe as a summer laborer for my business. Many of our first-time laborers have no skills with physical labor; many have never pushed a wheelbarrow or planted a tree or pulled weeds.

Joe was not one of those. He was smart, handsome and capable. And, clearly Joe wanted more. He had a terrible disposition, he was too smart for the job, and I used to tease him that I could never get him to smile; he always seemed angry. I thought about myself at his age and thought it must be a phase; what my mother used to call ‘growing pains’.

I remember driving Joe home after work one day. Joe was clearly proud of the beautiful and inviting home his family had created together. As we pulled, in a youngster came running out and excitedly exclaimed ‘Joe is home!”.  I thought he would be alright; I was sure he would be alright.

Joe worked for us for two summers while completing his studies at UMass. He graduated in May of 2016; and died of a drug overdose in October of the same year. At Joe’s wake, I learned that he had been through rehab for drug addiction. I could feel the family’s painful resignation that he was, at last ,at peace. I can’t begin to imagine the struggles that beautiful family lived through and continues to feel.

Other young men who worked for us those two summers probably dabbled in drugs. Clearly many of our youth are in crisis; nothing in our past experience has provided us with the tools we need to deal with this issue.

The Pelican Intervention Fund provides necessary information, funding and support for families struggling with drug addiction.

In memory of Joe, and all those affected by this terrible scourge, Garden Imprint will offer summer flowering plants for sale at all the masses of the

HRIC Collaborative the weekend of May 18th. Proceeds will go to the Pelican Intervention Fund to continue their efforts with this ongoing crisis.

We look forward to your generosity and your prayerful support.  Thank you.