Dear James: The Day Addiction Took My Son - A Mother's Journey Through Grief and Healing - Paperback

A mother's love does not end where a heartbeat stops.

On an ordinary October afternoon in 2018, Janet Ropp's world split into before and after. A massage appointment, a missed call, four police cars in her driveway - and then the words no mother is ever prepared to hear. Her son James was gone, taken by an overdose at nineteen years old.

Dear James is Janet's unflinching account of the years that followed: the shattering, the searching, and the slow, sacred work of learning to live again. Written by a certified Grief Recovery Specialist and Spiritual Life Coach who has walked this exact road, this memoir doesn't offer easy comfort or tidy answers. Instead, it offers something rarer - honesty.

Inside, you'll find:

• A raw, real-time account of the day addiction took her son, and the years of grief that followed
• Her journey through codependency, twelve-step recovery spaces, and the particular grief of losing someone to overdose
• A deeply personal exploration of signs, spiritual connection, and what it means to stay bonded to someone who has crossed beyond the physical
• "All That He Was" - a loving tribute to who James truly was, beyond the addiction that took him
• A curated resource guide for grieving parents, families affected by addiction, and anyone searching for support after loss

This book is for the mother who has cried in her car after a hard day and then driven to the next one anyway. For anyone who has lost a child, a sibling, a piece of themselves to addiction. For anyone standing in the wreckage of what used to be, wondering if there's a way forward.

There is. Janet found it. And she is holding the door open for you.