Johnson County
Died: July 12, 2021
A father’s warning: ‘You’re gonna wind up gone, just like Adam.’
At his son’s celebration of life, Dennis Black stood in front of dozens of Adam’s friends. People Adam, 49, had known for most of his adult life, people he had gotten high with.
And as he grieved his son, Dennis spoke a hard truth. Not just about addiction and drug use in general, but fentanyl in particular.
“Adam’s not here anymore,” Dennis remembers saying. “But you guys are here. What are you gonna do? You know, if you keep going like this, I mean, you’re gonna wind up gone, just like Adam.”
He said fentanyl had changed the landscape. That if they were doing one drug, it could be laced with the synthetic opioid, which is more deadly, without them knowing.
“I mean, I’m glad you all are here to tell everybody how much you loved Adam and how much you’re going to miss him,” Dennis said. “But I mean, you’re here. So you got to do something about it. You gotta walk away from that stuff, you know, because it’s getting worse and worse. You’re not going to know what you’re gonna get.”
He and Adam — who he described as a “very bright guy” who loved family and music, reading and learning about historical events — had talked about fentanyl. His son knew how dangerous it was and that other drugs, like heroin, could be laced with it.
That’s one reason that he would make sure he was with friends when he got high. They knew how to help when someone overdosed.
Adam told his dad that he had overdosed three times and friends kept him alive.
Dennis told his son that he didn’t want to get the call at 3 or 4 in the morning one day telling him that he was gone.
One of the last times that Dennis Black was with his son, he made sure to let him know he would always support him. And that regardless of the heroin addiction he battled most of his adult life, his dad was there.
“I was dropping him off at the place where he was staying and I put my arm around him and I said, ‘Adam, do you know how much I love you, man?”
“Oh, I know how much you love me, Dad,” Adam told him. “You have never forgotten me.”
The early morning call Dennis feared came from his daughter in July 2021, telling him, “Dad they found Adam dead in the park.” He was in his tent in the area where many addicts hang out.
“He was all alone,” Dennis said, “which breaks my heart.”
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