On October 6, 1992 at 8:20pm God gave me a very wonderful gift.  I named him Aaron Seth Mason.  He was such a great kid, he never gave me any problems as a child and I always got positive feedback from anyone he ever stayed with.  I was only 17 when Aaron was born.  We struggled a lot to make ends meet, but I was determined to give him a good life, I wanted to give him the world and I constantly told him he could do or be anything he wanted to be.  Aaron was a big time momma’s boy and I was overwhelmed with pride for him.  He was a very sweet, thoughtful, intelligent young man.  He was popular at school and pretty much had anything he wanted.  Shortly after his 15th birthday I realized he was smoking marijuana.  It wasn’t long after that his personality started to change he started lashing out at me and his little brothers.  He was no longer his sweet caring self. I should have known that there was something serious going on.

I got a call from the school one day in April saying that another student had seen Aaron with pills.  The principal told me that she searched Aaron and found nothing and he looked ok, but his friend Sean was in the bathroom sick and his mother was coming to get him.  When Aaron came home that day I ask him what that was about.  He said to me “Mom, I took an Advil at school and another kid saw me taking it and they just made a big deal out of nothing”.   Stupid me, I believed him.  I really trusted him and I thought he was so much smarter than this.  I ask him what was wrong with Sean and he said he didn’t know, he must have eaten something that didn’t agree with him- I let it go.

A few weeks went by and I came home from work one day to find Aarons marijuana on my coffee table.  He had obviously been smoking before school that morning.  I was very upset.  He’s step dad took the stuff.  When Aaron came home, I didn’t say a word to him.  He went to his room and then came out frantic and said “mom, did you take my stuff”?  I said “what are you talking about”?  At that point he flipped out on me and told me he hated me and he was moving to his dad’s.  I said “fine with me”.  I was hoping that moving him to a new school and with his dad would help him.  It only got worse. 

July 4th weekend Aaron’s girlfriends Dad showed up at my door wanting to know if I knew where Aaron was the night before.  I explained to him that Aaron had moved out and I tried to call his dad. He went on to tell me that Aaron had went to see his girlfriend that was babysitting and that she had been sick all day because Aaron had given her a pill of some kind.  At that point I knew we had a big problem.  I tried to warn his dad and I wish more than anything I would have made him move back home with me so I could get a hold of the situation.

July 17, 2008 was the last time I saw my baby alive.  He was going on a trip to Cherokee North Carolina for two weeks with my mom.  I thought it would be good for him to get away from everything for a while.  I called him on Saturday to see how the trip was going and everything seemed normal.  My mom is disabled with Rheumatoid Arthritis she basically has a pharmacy with her at all times.