Pubdate: Sun, 22 Jun 2003
Source: Elizabethton Star (TN)
Copyright: 2003 Elizabethton Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.starhq.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1478
Author: Abby Morris, Star Staff

A MOTHER FIGHTS TO BATTLE AGAINST THE DRUGS THAT KILLED HER DAUGHTER ONE 
YEAR AGO

Less than a year after her daughter's death, an area woman has taken a 
stand and is fighting against the thing that stole her daughter's life. 
Bridgette Boudle was a beautiful 29-year-old woman.

Unfortunately, this young woman had been introduced into the world of drugs.

On the afternoon of June 30, 2002, police officers and emergency medical 
service personnel were dispatched to Days Inn on West Elk Avenue on a 
medical call. Emergency workers attempted CPR, but Bridgette was not 
responding to treatment.

She was transported to Sycamore Shoals Hospital where she was pronounced 
dead at 5 p.m.

"A year later, her death is still under investigation, but predominately 
methadone and much smaller amounts of 'killer' drugs were found in her 
little 90-pound body," said Bridgette's mother, Susan Barry.

"According to the medical examiner, these drugs killed her. This should 
never have happened to Bridgette, her orphaned children or the others of us 
who adored her."

The hardest part of dealing with her daughter's death, Susan said, was the 
way that Bridgette died.

"How ridiculous for a 29-year-old girl to die for nothing," she said. "She 
wasn't ill. She didn't have a disease. I could have handled it easier if 
she had died of cancer."

Since Bridgette's death, Susan has started two programs, Everyone's Child 
and Padlock, as a way to combat the drug problem facing our communities.

When something the magnitude of having a child die happens, a person has 
basically two choices on how to react, Susan said.

"It will either kill you or get you motivated to make a change," she said. 
"You either let them keep stomping all over you or you can get up and stomp 
back."

Susan describes Everyone's Child and Padlock as "evolving programs" that 
will take whatever direction needed in order to help solve the drug problem 
facing communities.

"Anything that helps to solve the problem, I'm all for it," she said.

One of the areas she hopes to focus on is the law enforcement aspect of 
fighting the war on drugs.

"The police can't do this by themselves," she said. "They need help. We can 
help them. We are the people.

We have eyes and ears and voices." According to Susan, one of the biggest 
obstacles in the war on drugs is the unwillingness of some people to admit 
that problems with drugs can occur not only in their community, but in 
their family as well. "No town is exempt.

No community is exempt.

Almost no family is exempt," she said. "It could happen to you, too. Oh, 
yes it could."

Susan said that on many occasions, she tried to help her daughter overcome 
the dependence she had developed on drugs. "I tried to save her and 
couldn't. She really did not know what was wrong with her," Susan said. "If 
she had dried out and gotten off the drugs for a while, she might have been 
Bridgette again.

"My dream was for her to be my best friend again someday when this was all 
over with and they (drug dealers) took what could have been my best friend 
from me."

Susan stated that she felt that even having her daughter in jail for drugs 
would have been better than the way things ended. "I would have been glad 
if someone had arrested her," she said. "I would much rather visit her in 
jail than in a graveyard."

Another of the main focuses of the problem will be to help increase not 
only the awareness about the level of the drug problem in northeast 
Tennessee, but also about the devastating effects that drugs have on the 
people who use and abuse them.

To help increase community awareness, Everyone's Child will be holding open 
forum public meetings on June 27 and 28 at the lower end of the Ingle's 
parking lot on West Elk Avenue.

"I want all of the good Christian people of the community to come down," 
Susan said, adding that she asks those who come down to the meetings to 
wear something orange. "The reason for orange is because we've been the 
prisoners of these people and it's time to get out of the orange prison gear."
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