Friday, June 5, 2015
Profile of a TAM Mom
Written by Sherry Schlenke, and borrowed from Kim’s own beautiful and eloquent Voice.
Moms, please meet Kimberly Griner Heinz. Kim is one of the most amazing and inspirational women that you will ever know. She has an opportunity to be the feature runner on the cover of Runner’s World Magazine. Moms, she needs your votes! If you are inclined to, you can vote DAILY for her till July 22,2015 Please click here to vote:http://coversearch.runnersworld.com/entry/678/
Kim lost her only child, her boy, Eric, in February of 2014, to the demon heroin. Rather than letting her grief consume her life, she is a Marathoner who travels the country, running 26 miles in memory of Eric, who was only 26 years old at the time of his tragic death.
In Kimberly’s own words “life presents challenges from which we choose to either give up or grow, retreat or rise up, accept or act upon. As the saying goes: ‘you can either throw in the towel or use it to wipe the sweat off your face’. Keep wiping the sweat off your face and keep moving forward. I run and leave the pieces of grief behind me on the pavement."
She weeps as she runs, both in her races, and in the early morning practice runs in Wisconsin; she runs in fog, in rain, in wind and in cold. Eric often ran with his mom. Now, her three, 4-legged companions accompany her; one is a 12-year old, blind, diabetic black lab named Hoosier. He walks 1 mile with Kim. Kimberly is devoted to her dogs, as they are to her.
“Running - my towrope, my lifeline, pulling me through life and at times when grief and sorrow squeeze me so hard I can barely breathe, I hold on tight and keep moving.”
Eric was born on 2/22/1987 in Chicago. Through high school, he lived
in Florida. He moved to Chicago when he was 21, attended Roosevelt University. His passion was fishing, Miami Dolphin football, and Chicago Cubs baseball.
A high school football injury to his back, coupled with his work as a cook, introduced him to the world of Oxycontin.
Kim believes, after reading Eric’s journal that she discovered after
his death, that this was the beginning of Eric’s journey on the tragic
road of addiction:
Eric wrote:
“I did heroin for the first time in over a year. I don’t know why I chose to. Like always, it’s a warm blanket on a cold night. I actually feel ok right now. Heroin masks all my physical, emotional and psychological pain completely. When it comes to drugs, alcohol, coke, Xanax, they were just affairs, but when I met heroin, it was true love.”
Eric was a freckled, redheaded cutie pie, as handsome as his mother is beautiful. But Kim’s beauty is not superficial; her beauty runs deep into her soul, as she runs in Eric’s memory, reflecting upon his brief life and tragic death:
“I could no more stop missing or thinking about Eric than I could stop breathing. What I would give to hear the word “Mom” again. The real challenge after losing a child is moving forward. But life does continue, whether we like it or not; morning comes, again and again. So we pick ourselves up and we live, but we are never the same. At first, we are different because of our raw sadness. Over time, the sadness moves from our skin into our bones. It becomes less visible, but no less who we are. It changes into a wisdom, one we'd give up in a heartbeat to have our child back. We who have lost children understand life's fragility and beauty, understand that nothing is more important than each other, those we love. Soar high with the angels my beautiful boy, Eric, forever 26.
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Good morning partners in this addiction epidemic,
Our benefit to help fight addiction, this year's Conquering Grounds Music Fest is fast upon us. Our kids are dying out there and we need your help. We have worked closely with so many amazing organizations to help those struggling with addiction and incarceration over the years. Now is time to continue to help organizations like CLPRM and the music fest help those get the necessary treatment needed to get their lives back on track. Would you prayerfully consider taking a look at the sponsor pack attached for this year's event on September 12th. Any sponsorship big or small will help us help those who are struggling and you also have a great opportunity to put your organization in front of thousands this year. For more information on the event the MusicFest website is ready.
Please feel free to share and contact me if you have any questions. Looking forward to having you at this year's Music Fest. Thank you for all your support in the past
Bob Sofronski, Executive Director
Christian Life Prison and Recovery Ministries, Inc.
Po Box 1624
Southampton, PA 18966
Jeremiah 29:11
Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
-------- Original message --------
From: Bob Sofronski <bobsofronski@live.com>
Date:05/26/2015 12:03 PM (GMT-05:00)
To: Bob Sofronski <bobsofronski@live.com>
Cc:
Subject: Conquering Grounds Music Fest Sponsor pack
Sent from Windows Mail
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