When Becky Savage first tried to wake up her 18-year-old son Nick one June morning and he failed to stir, she thought he was being a typical teen.
She looked at her son, one of four, and in that moment thought he looked like an angel.
Mere moments later, she would learn that both Nick and his older brother Jack, 19, were dead.
It is a tale too many American families know all too well. Teens with everything going for them, gone too soon after experimenting with prescription pills.
Becky Savage is opening up about the devastating morning both her sons Jack, 19, (left) and Nick, 18, (center) died after experimenting with prescription pills at a graduation party
Becky had tried to wake up her son Jack (pictured together) on the morning of June 14, 2015, but he didn't stir
The day before Nick and Jack died - on June 14, 2015 - there had been a number of graduation parties to attend.
Star hockey players, the boys were known in their Granger, Indiana community for getting good grades, going to church, and volunteering.
Becky's husband Mike took their two younger sons, Justin and Matthew, to their lake house to fish. She went with Nick and Jack to a few of the parties.
She later hugged her sons goodbye, reminding them to be home at a 'reasonable hour', before going to the grocery store.
The boys came home at midnight and said goodnight to their mother. Jack went to his room while Nick and a few friends made their way to the basement.
'I made eye contact with them,' Becky told the Indianapolis Star. 'We had a two-story foyer and I remember them coming in and I was looking at them and they headed into the kitchen to make a snack.'
It was the last time she would see her two oldest boys alive.
Becky called 911 for Jack (left) at the same time her younger son Nick's friends found him unresponsive in the basement. Both boys had died in the night (Nick is pictured right)
Becky's husband Mike took their two younger sons, Justin and Matthew, to their lake house to fish on the night Nick and Jack died (pictured is the whole family of six)
Becky remembers telling Jack to wake up, that it was time to start his chores. Soon she realized something was very, very wrong. Even when she nudged him, he didn't move.
'I need your help! Nick! Help!' she began to scream, begging for her oldest. Becky then called 911 and laid Jack on the floor to start CPR.
She kept screaming for Nick but he didn't come. Then the paramedics arrived and one immediately left the room.
'Where are you going? Why are you leaving him?' Becky remembered yelling. 'He's a fighter. What are you doing?'
One of Nick's friends told Becky that the boys had experimented 'with Oxy' at a party on the night before they died
Becky later found out that when she had been calling 911 for Jack, the boys down in the basement were doing the same for Nick after they found him unresponsive.
That same paramedic returned to Jack's room. 'We need a coroner,' he told her.
'It was just a horrible, horrible morning,' Becky said. 'That still doesn't seem real.'
Becky couldn't understand what had happened, what had killed her boys in their own home.
Then one of Nick's friends turned to her and said: 'They experimented last night... with Oxy.'
Someone had taken a bottle of Oxycodone, a prescription pain killer, to the graduation party.
Becky, a nurse, begged the paramedics to give her boys Narcan, a medication that is used to treat an opioid overdose. But it was too late.
A neighbor called Mike at the lake house and told him there was an emergency back home. When he came to the front door, Becky told him that his boys were gone.
'I often think what I would give up to just have 10 seconds,' Mike later said in an emotional Facebook video. 'You'd give everything up for 10 seconds, just 10 seconds.'
Becky said she has not tried to find out who brought the prescription pills to the graduation party on that fateful night.
Becky, a nurse, begged the paramedics to give her boys (pictured is Nick) Narcan, a medication that is used to treat an opioid overdose. But it was too late
'Nothing will ever change the outcome of that night and I can't beat myself up over details of wanting to know,' she said.
'I don't think any good comes from blaming people,' she said. 'Nick and Jack ultimately took them. It was their choice. It was an uniformed decision. They just didn't know.'
While Becky and Mike had talked to their boys about sex, illegal drugs, alcohol, and drunk driving, prescription drugs had never come up.
'Prescription drugs were not even on our radar,' she said. 'Four years ago we had no idea that kids were even doing that.'
Now Becky is working hard to make sure to inform families and teens about the dangers of prescription drugs, so that they will never have to know her own pain.
'What I explain to kids is not only does that decision in that time affect you but it affects all your friends and your family,' Becky said.
'We have a lifetime sentence now because of choices that Nick and Jack made. And they would never want that for us, I mean ever.'
While Becky and Mike had talked to their boys about sex, illegal drugs, alcohol, and drunk driving, prescription drugs had never come up
Mike and Becky have since launched non-profit The 525 Foundation to raise awareness of the dangers of prescription drugs.
Becky found inspiration from the name when she saw a photo of her four boys all together. Jack and Nick were standing side by side, Jack in his #5 hockey jersey and Nick wearing #25.
The mother has been sharing her story for three years, and every single time she gets in front of an audience she thinks: 'There is a Nick or Jack out there somewhere.'
She tells parents to clean out their medicine cabinets, get rid of old medication, and have candid talks with their children about prescription pills.
'Have those conversations. Conversations save lives,' she said. 'If we plant that seed, maybe it will grow.'
Since starting the foundation, Becky's community has collected more than 6,000 pounds of pills.
She has also helped install permanent pill drop boxes in local supermarkets.
Becky and her family have since left the house where her boys died. But now she says when they talk about Jack and Nick, they laugh more than they cry.
'To think that Nick and Jack's life would end the way it did, that's not the way their story is going to end,' she said.
'Their story is going to keep going and they are going to make a difference.'
Via - Dailymail
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