Friday, October 13, 2006 is the day I will remember for the rest of my life and probably the worst days of my life. My mom called that morning to say "David is Dead". His wife found him in bed. He went to sleep and never woke up. I cried, screamed and will never be the same. He was my little brother and I loved him. I prayed for him all the time. We initally was told it was a heart attack since his heart was double the size. He was only 41. For six months we thought that until the final autopsy recently came and it said CAUSE OF DEATH: METHADONE TOXICITY. Where did he get it? Why did he take it? the questions went on and on. David had a prescription drug addiction, probably from past injuries to his back and shoulder. My mom and I always thought he was on something, but since we both lived in other states it was hard to really know. His wife told us she had confronted him a couple of times and found out he was buying them from people he worked with. This we found out after he died. He was a construction project manager in North Carolina, where pills were readily available to him. He promised her he would not take them again. We think he may have either decided to get off the pills and took Methadone to help him or just took it like another pain pill and didn't know what it was. We will never know. All we know is he wasn't feeling well that night he died. His wife thought it was his shoulder again or just the flu, so they went to bed. The next morning she let him sleep since he wasn't feeling well. She even said he had a loud snore and it sounded funny. When she finally went to get him up, he had already died. She is a nurse and tried CPR but he was already gone. She said he had the most peaceful look on his face. He was finally at peace! He was a larger than life guy with a great personality. He was funny and very athletic. It is a tragedy that people are so casual about taking Methadone, like it is a wonder, cure all drug. It will always be poison to me and not at all something that should be on the market. I think about him everyday and love him and miss him!

Katherine Amick - sister

http://david-ariss.memory-of.com/about.aspx