Memorial

Always Loved, Always Remembered, Never Forgotten

Addiction/Overdose

Trevor Leopold

1/30/2001 to 11/17/2019

Trevor London Leopold was a loving human being with a huge heart that he willingly shared with so many others. From an early age, Trevor was an animal lover. His first word was “duck” and his first friend, “Goodgirl” his black dog, Kirby. Trevor had a zoo of animals in his room throughout his childhood, including guinea pigs, rats, and frogs raised from tadpoles. All his life Trevor had a special bond with goats as well. His nickname, “Goat Boy” was solidified first at the SF Zoo and then at the Marin County Fair where he spent so much time petting the goats. A Native American counselor from Utah, who was unaware of Trevor’s nickname, bestowed the “Mountain Goat” as his totem animal at a spirit animal ceremony, based upon his resilience and ability to sure footedly scale a mountain. This solidified Trevor as the “Goat Boy” forever.


He was an avid rock collector, nature detective, and even a certified Audubon Junior Birdwatcher, able to identify over 150 local birds. Trevor was an Indian Guide, Cub Scout, and Boy Scout, played little league, and a lifelong avid skier and later snowboarder, mostly with his brother and dad, braving the wildest snowstorms and steepest runs.
Trevor enjoyed fishing along with his brother Parker, so much so that the family went fishing on many of their family vacations.


Trevor was fortunate to take advantage of the travels implied by his middle name “London,” and he was fortunate to share many family vacations in amazing places including Hawaii, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, Puerto Rico, many places throughout the US, and most recently to Paris and Italy months before he died. One of the family’s favorite vacations was hiking the Narrows at Zion
Trevor’s biggest passion was skateboarding, as evidenced by his skater wardrobe, caps, and hoodies.


Trevor loved playing dice, board games, and card games with his family, and cherished time with friends, and loved being with his cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Trevor’s all-time favorite human being, however, was his brother Parker, who could be at the same time his worst enemy or best friend. All of the family agree that Trevor always was quick to say I Love You and gave great, real hugs.


Trevor was accepted to four Cal State Universities and entered Sonoma State in fall 2019 as a Freshman. Trevor was actively working on accepting help and putting foundations and supports in place in his life to enable him to go forward on a higher path. All of the wonderful blessings that he had: talent, friendships, positive outlook on life, and, most importantly, family, were sidelined by his decision to take a drug which ended his life suddenly. Trevor will forever be missed and forever be in our hearts.

#TrevorIsEverywhere

Matt Klosowski

7/30/1977 to 01/03/2015

Matt was an incredible, loving man. He was a mechanic and suffered a back injury that required surgery. He was given large volumes of opioids and became addicted. Comprehensive treatment didn’t exist and as hard as he tried to beat his disease the help he needed wasn’t available. 

Have you ever met a guy whose smile would light up a room? Who made you feel like you found a long-lost friend. The kinda guy who would give you the shirt off his back. That guy who would bring every stray dog home and make it a member of our family. 

That was my son, Matt. He had that happy-go-lucky personality that drew people in and made them fall in love. Unfortunately for Matt he never loved himself enough.

Matt experimented with marijuana in high school. He loved that high. He ended up in his first rehab while in high school. He spent 30 days as an in-patient in NewPort News, Virginia. I foolishly thought that we beat his disease. 

Matt went on the become an excellent mechanic. He moved to the beach, bought a home, and opened his business. His adult life appeared free of drugs. He was an adult. He was successful. I took that deep breath and started to relax. Matt loved life and was living it to the fullest. 

 Since Matt’s death, I have been trying to pick up the pieces of my life. I started a support group for parents who like me have lost a piece of their hearts. I began writing letters to Matt and started a blog called Mothers Heart Break. I share our story and educate about the addictive properties of prescription opioids. I started a FaceBook page in his honor. Breaking the Stigma of Addiction: Matt’s Story posting educational articles related to prescription drugs and their potential for abuse. 

Dean Gray

08/11/1994 to 08/10/2019

Dean was a talented, creative, funny, charming, kind boy. He was an “old soul” in a young form. He loved music, the Eagles, his cat Jinxy and his family dearly.

Dean started smoking marijuana when he was 14 because he liked this girl and she got him into it. It was pretty much a struggle to save him from himself and keep him alive for the next 10 years. He died of fentanyl poisoning from a fake pill at 24.

 

Tyler Joseph Shamash

07/03/1999 to 10/21/2018

Press play to hear and see Tyler talking to his mom.

Tyler was extremely bright, could hack any computer, built computers and could fix anything. He was extremely curious, helpful, and kind. Sometimes, too kind and generous, and other kids sometimes took advantage of that. He would start every phone call off “Hi mom it’s me Tyler”, as if I didn’t know who it was. He would end every conversation by telling me that he loved me. People always liked Tyler, especially adults, even when he was very young. He talked a lot and adults would always be impressed by his incredible knowledge of various subjects. He spoke complete sentences at 18 months old and was small for his age, so he appeared younger than he was. He had the most gorgeous shade of reddish hair when he was younger. He would always forgive friends when they did something to hurt him. He had very mild Aspergers and bad ADHD. He absolutely hated the structure of school, but if he was interested in something he would research it on his own and find out everything about it, just like he did with marijuana. He knew every strain, how to grow it, and what was the best bong. As soon as he turned 18, he got his first tattoo which was of the Iladelph bong logo. He often got in trouble in sober livings communities, not for using drugs, but for not being able to pay attention in meetings due to his ADHD. They would not let him take Adderall since it is a controlled substance. I wish I would’ve fought harder for him to be able to take it. He had been doing really well at the time that he died. He had gotten his first full-time job and seemed really happy. Unfortunately, he brokered himself to a treatment place and used the money he got to buy the drugs that he died from.

Tyler was always very curious about what the green cross was and when he found out, at around 9 years old, out of curiosity, he wanted to go into a dispensary. He started smoking pot when he was around 12 or 13 and I did not think it was such a big deal, since I grew up smoking pot throughout high school and college. I did not realize that the pot today is so much stronger and affects developing brains. He was using it to self-medicate for very bad anxiety and soon it became not enough so he started dabbing and making dab at home using my blow dryer to heat it up. That led to the use of promethazine codeine cough medicine mixed with soda. When he was around 16, we had him taken to a wilderness program in Idaho, and then to a therapeutic boarding school in Utah for over a year and the numerous detoxes, treatment places, and sober livings. He was then introduced to smoking heroin by two girls that he liked. He always said that he didn’t need the other drugs, but would smoke pot till the day he died. At 19, he died in the bathroom of a sober living from a fentanyl overdose.