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Hello, and welcome to our blog. July 15, 2017, our brother Luke passed away. After ten years clean, he sadly succumbed to his heroin addiction and overdosed. August 19, 2017 would have been Luke’s 34 th birthday. There is a space in all of our hearts that will be missing Luke on this day.   We  propose that we use our heartbreak to better this world! Here is the idea: Pick an activity from the following link in remembrance of Luke: https://august-nineteenth.blogspot.com/2017/08/ideas-to-honor-luke.html Work together or on your own to do one or several of these on or around August 19 th .   Remember to keep Luke, our family, and all the drug addicted in your prayers. Then, kindly email us any thoughts or pictures you have from that day so we can all see what was done. After we receive them, we will post them to this blog, so check back.    Feel free to share this! This world could use more love and kindness and Luke would be honored for us t...
Recent posts

Kelly

I am an RN who is also an addict. Alcohol and prescription medications with 5 years of recovery. I worked for a short time at SpiritLife where I met Luke. The day I met him, he offered me some of his famous tiramisu. After we first opened, Luke filled in a 12 hour counselor night shift. We only had one patient that night, so Luke and I basically sat down one on one and talked. All night long. What a fantastic person I met! We talked of our common bond experiences with addiction. He talked all night about his family, his addiction and recovery, and growing up in a household amid 6 sisters. He spoke about moving to the Midwest and having been previously engaged, and how his addiction destroyed his dream. He spoke all about his work in Cenecolo, I heard all about Mexico, Italy, and Alabama. He spoke so fondly about Leo. He showed me pictures all night long as he spoke of everyone he loved. I grew up in a household as the oldest child with 3 brothers. By the next morning, I felt like I ha...

JP

Johnny Ross (as all his cousins call him!) was not only Luke's cousin but life long friend. Here is a photo of JP honoring Luke.  He carried around this very heavy backpack all day handing out Gatorade with Luke's badge from last year's retreat attached.  The main speaker also had a moment of silence to honor Luke before he began to speak. Unity Retreat 2017 We love you, JP!

Ware kids

Kids volunteered to make sample painted rocks for the Mining Museum in Luke's honor.  So, of course we had to have Snickers :) (Pat Ware- their grandma)

Michelle W.

We said a rosary for Luke and all the boys and girl in cenacolo today! Happy birthday, Luke! Thank you, Michelle.

Jackie

I only met Luke once, when he came with his mom while she did bookwork at WMUG. I talked with him ever so briefly, and really only ever talked with Cathy briefly. But she was a sweet, kind person, and our family has had enough dealings with addicts and alcoholics to empathize with what you all had gone through. Reading Luke’s father’s eulogy took me deeper into what you were all going through now, and I cannot fathom the depths of sorrow and grief. I can only say I’ll be praying for you all, and I know that Holy Spirit calls Himself the Comforter because the Lord knew we would need comforting. I will pray that He works deeply in all your hearts. And I will take seriously doing something specifically in honor of Luke, as you suggest on the website. God bless you all; please pass this along to Cathy, and let her know I mourn with her and am praying for her. with love in Jesus Christ, Jackie 

Next Year

We still have some posts to put up from our first August Nineteenth. This has been so inspiring to me and I'd like to see it become an annual thing.  We can continue working off the existing idea list but here are two new ones: 1) Visit Dairy Queen.  Luke worked there in high school and many times his sisters were on the receiving end of free ice cream :) Pay for the people behind you in honor of Luke. 2) Bring clothes and personal care items to donate to a rehab center. Feel free to comment or email any other ideas!!