Grief Addiction

One phone call. That's all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs's life forever.... Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance? In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, which she learned about three days before her wedding, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation.

Jack Maloney was born in Philadelphia, PA, to alcoholic parents. He endured a turbulent childhood, suffering harrowing abuse and one trauma after another. He escaped his dysfunctional family by joining the Marines at age 17. Jack was an active alcoholic and drug addict for many years. He has been in alcohol recovery for the past 37 years. His life is a testament of overcoming life’s most difficult challenges. Jack is a survivor turned thriver! His story, Little by Slowly, takes listeners from real loneliness and fear to an ever-living hope that we all need to thrive!

While it's tough to understand what leads a person into addiction - to witness someone you love kind-of kill herself - the truth is that you can learn from it. By the time Céline died at age 30, she was Kermit The Frog green and she vomited blood more frequently than she was able to eat. In less than a decade, she had gone from summa cum laude Columbia graduate to NYU PhD student to unemployed, rambling, stumbling drunk saddled with a cirrhotic liver beyond repair.