Mother of 2 lost her zeal for life

A flash of nostalgia coursed through Charles Koepke as Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" started playing on the radio during the motorcade to Gate of Heaven Cemetery in East Hanover where his ex-wife, Deborah, was to be buried on March 4.

"It had been one of her favorite songs. I thought, `Maybe she's climbed those stairs,'" he said.

Deborah Ann Koepke died at age 42 on Feb. 28, succumbing to the lethal combination of heroin and alcohol despite warnings from doctors treating her for a chemical imbalance that she was not to touch liquor, much less drugs.

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