No rest for the retired: Opioid crisis fills empty nests as grandparents step up
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — She is a Newfoundland woman who worked hard all her adult life to raise a family. Her struggles had just started to ease up with her children grown and she had hoped her 50s might be a time to slow down, take a trip each year and, every once in awhile, buy herself something nice.
But the opioid epidemic that has moved across Canada, tearing families apart in its wake, did not spare hers.
She is among a growing number of grandparents who are stepping up as their adult children are consumed by addiction.
“It started with OxyContin,” said the woman, whose identity is protected to safeguard the names of the two young grandchildren she is now raising in St. John’s. “Then it was Ritalin, Percocet. I can name off a lot of drugs.”