Congratulations to Francesca Alfano, a teacher/librarian in Hamilton, who has won a copy of Forget Me Not: Canadian Stories of Workplace Tragedy from the Families’ Perspective. Francesca won the book by re-tweeting a link to my earlier post about the book.

Published in Canada Apr. 30, 2011

Threads of Life asked me to keep one copy of Forget Me Not and give one away (hence the contest). When the book arrived in the mail, I opened it to a random page and saw the story of Josh Tullett. He survived his workplace injury, slicing off three of his fingers with a table saw when he was 18, but six years later he’s in recovery from an addiction to OxyContin – a prescribed painkiller that Josh stopped taking as prescribed, eventually snorting it like cocaine.

Photo credit: Shawn Honnick on Flickr

“It got to the point where, if I didn’t do a line the moment I woke up, I couldn’t function. I couldn’t get out of bed… I had to have OxyContin every single day just to function,” reads the story on page 60.

After six years, on and off, he managed to clean up from his habit eight months ago. At publication, he was working again, and living clean and sober.

Families share lessons learned

Twenty-one families told their stories and described their emotions in the book. The book’s back cover calls it “a first-ever glimpse into the overturned lives of families following a workplace tragedy…a timely dinner conversation for parents and children…a companion piece for workplace health and safety orientation for young and new workers….”

I look forward to reading this important memorial and sharing more of its stories with you on this blog.