Upset at Jim LaMattery's post

Jim LaMattery, I’m a friend of the father & I’d like to say a few things tho I’m reluctant to speak on behalf of him or the [G] family. He & his wife are going through deep emotional pain after the loss of their son David whom they loved deeply. I’m not sure & if they’ll be coming to this board any time soon to argue with you & listen to your malicious accusations & suspicions. What you have done is extremely thoughtless & is no way to honor the dead. I do believe you owe the entire [G] family an apology.

First of all as people have already pointed out, David’s father & mother & most of his siblings are out of the Family for quite a number of years now. I know the father well & he is a meek, sincere individual. He is one of those FGs who has gone to huge lengths to make things right with his children, taking the blame & beating himself up for all the mistakes he made as a parent. His adult children have forgiven him & compared to most dysfunctional ex-COG families they were close & loving.

Despite your suspicions about why David struggled with drug dependency & addiction the main reason was that he had an inherited weakness. It’s nothing to be ashamed of to admit that you have this disease & without condemning him in any way his parents reached out & did all they could to help him overcome this condition, traveling all the way to the States at times to try to get him into rehab. David worked really hard to overcome his dependency & became active in Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous. He had a year & a half where he was free from drug addiction before finally relapsing.

His father & his family were close to him all these last years & supported & helped him as much as they could, even financially though they are not well to do. They had a beautiful Christmas visit with him in Texas in 2004. David’s dad repeatedly mentioned to me how his son was doing & from the way he talked about him, it was clear that he loved his son deeply. David was close to his mother & just before his overdosing, he e-mailed to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. There were very good reasons why she was unable to attend his memorial but none of those reasons merited a total stranger suspiciously sticking his nose in & trying to find someone to blame. You owe the [G] family an apology.