Greenpoint Gazette_20200214

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Since 1974

GREENPOINT | WILLIAMSBURG

VOLUME 48 | NUMBER 6

February 13, 2020

(718) 422-7400

25¢

The views are really something at the waterfront recreation area by the Greenpoint ferry landing. Visit brooklyneagle.com for more photos. INBrooklyn photos by Lore Croghan

When drugs take a child: New B’klyn haven for hoping and coping By Paul Frangipane Greenpoint Gazette

On a recent evening in the basement of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Greenpoint, Sia Hanratty stood up and addressed a local precinct community council meeting. She told her audience that she would soon be using the same location to hold grief recovery meetings, specifically for people mourning loved ones who died from substance use. Hanratty paused for a moment when mentioning her 26year-old son who overdosed on opioids almost 10 years ago, and the difficult grieving process that followed. For years after her son’s death, the Greenpoint mother visited different support groups, but when time came for her to share her story, people in the room frequently seemed to judge her, sometimes asking why her son couldn’t just stop taking drugs. Finally, about nine years after his death, Hanratty found support she needed at meetings in Midtown Manhattan of the national group Grief Recovery After a Substance Passing (GRASP), sessions that were filled with people who bonded over losing a loved one to drug use. CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

St. John’s Lutheran Church in Greenpoint, where the Brooklyn chapter of GRASP meets. INBrooklyn photo by Paul Frangipane

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