FITCHBURG -- Donna Van Hillo used to listen to Frankie Avalon records at The Book Shop on Main Street, and then head down to The Fitchburg Lunch with high school friends for a burger and fries. Van Hillo -- gleefully reminiscing -- gestured toward a battered awning on Main Street and said she'd buy shoes at the same spot when it was Spencer's Shoe Store. "I used to love to come downtown every Saturday. I'd take the bus," Van Hillo said. She walked by some black, boarded-up doors at the Theater Building last week, next to where she once bought fresh caramel corn. [continues 2685 words]
Julie LaFrance, 33, travels from her apartment in Framingham to Fitchburg's Habit Management methadone clinic every morning at 5:45 a.m., just to get her daily methadone dose. "There are no sick days, no vacation days, no snow days," LaFrance said. "Every 24 hours you're in the same place. There is no time out or pause button." LaFrance first became hooked on prescription painkillers when she was 19 years old. A doctor prescribed Percocet for her after minor surgery. She didn't know at the time that the feeling the drug gave her would keep her hooked for the next 15 years. [continues 2622 words]
