Christine Bride with pictures of her boys Peter and Mathew. Mrs Bride said the pain of losing a son to drugs was something no mother should have to endure. By Paul Dunlop
CHRISTINE Bride knows only too well the pain of losing a son to drugs.
Twice, the Bunyip woman has suffered a heartbreak she says no mother should ever have to endure.
Shattered by the deaths in 2002 and 2004 of her boys Mathew and Peter, Mrs Bride experienced a similar pang again on Friday — this time for a woman she has never met.
Mrs Bride said she felt desperately sorry for the mother of Nguyen Tuong Van, who was executed in Singapore for drug trafficking.
Mrs Bride said there were no words to describe what it was like to be a mother and watch a son’s life disappear.
“I sat for 12 days in the ICU unit of the Austin Hospital with my comatose son only to be told that there was nothing more to be done,” Mrs Bride said.
“I then sat with him and held his hand and, as his life support was switched off, I felt the last beat of his heart. He died at the age of 29.
“He had everything to live for and had been a bright and happy person before drugs entered his life.”
Two years after Mathew’s death, Mrs Bride found the body of her youngest son Peter who had become addicted to heroin. He was 27.
Mrs Bride said the anguish Peter had gone through in the last years of his life had been unbearable to watch.
“He was so lost and wanted so much to get his life back, but his addiction was just too great.”
Mrs Bride said she did not wish the pain that she had suffered on anyone.
But she also believes that if not for drug traffickers and the ease of obtaining drugs, the two sons she lost would still be alive.
In the emotioncharged campaign to stop Van from being executed, Mrs Bride believes many people appeared to have lost sight of what the Melbourne man had tried to do.
Mrs Bride said she hoped that if any good could come of Van’s death it would be to deter others from trying to bring heroin into Australia.
“I respect the fact that he believed what he was doing was for the benefit of his brother,” Mrs Bride said.
“However, I wonder if at any time he gave a thought to the lives and the families he was helping to destroy by bringing his deadly cargo in.
“Did he ever think once about the victims of addiction or that he was adding to the despair and destruction of other people?”
Softlyspoken and with a gentle outlook on life that belies her loss, Mrs Bride said the pain she felt would be with her forever.
She hoped Van’s mother, Kim Nguyen, had the strength to cope with what was in store for her.
Mrs Bride said her surviving son was the most cherished person in her world. She said his brothers live on through him.
“Most people look at an addict with disgust but when I look at them my heart breaks for another life lost and for all the hopes and dreams that have been shattered,” she said.
“Drug addicts are people like you and me but for some reason they make the wrong choice.
“Not for one minute do they think that they will become addicted and possibly lose their lives.”
