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Families converge on State House, asking for opioid epidemic support

BOSTON — Dozens of families marched to the State House to call for additional support in the fight against the opioid epidemic.

"I wake up thinking he's coming over and then I think- he's not coming. It's just unbearable thinking I'm never going to see him again," said Juda Mirka. 

Mirka was one of many carrying black balloons and photos of their loved ones who have died from an overdose. She also had around her neck, close to her heart, the ashses of her son, Bobby.

Bobby hurt his rotator cuff and was prescribed pain medication. This, his mother said, led him down the path to a heroin addiction. He overdosed on fentanyl.

Mirka said she later found out that Bobby was meeting a dealer at the coffee shop they would go to every morning - it was part of their daily mother-son routine.

"I've had a lot of guilt. A lot of guilt. Tons of guilt -  here  I  am bringing him there to get coffee and not knowing that someone was there selling it to him," she said.

Mirka is sharing her story to help raise awareness about how pervasive heroin addiction is. She joined dozens of families at the State House Wednesday to call for tougher measures, more support and better education.

Bobby's picture was hanging in the State House as part of an exhibit to highlight this epidemic.

The pain is still too raw for Mirka, but she finds some comfort in her grandsons, knowing that through them, Bobby is still with her.

"The little one looks exactly like him so when  I  look at him - I  see Bobby all the time so it's so hard....But he was a great dad," she said.