Zachary Horton
October 18, 2000 ~ January 7, 2020
Zachary passed away suddenly after losing his battle with an opioid addiction. He died of an accidental overdose at just 19 years old. He was our beloved son and only child.
There is no getting used to life without Zach. He is always missing. He was the light of our lives and our future. We loved Zach with all of our hearts, but we now know that was not enough to shield him from this horrific disease.
Zach was kind, funny, caring, smart, witty, good natured, sensitive and handsome. He had an amazing smile that could light up a room.
Our Mission
Our Foundation aims to break the stigma of addiction by offering love, hope and acceptance to individuals and families suffering from this disease. We accomplish this by providing education, outreach, support and scholarships.
Zach was compassionate rooting for the underdog, reaching out to help others especially those that needed a friend. He loved music especially Lil’ Peep, hanging out with friends, video games, chicken nuggets, horror movies, chip dip and couches. Zach was industrious and dependable holding a part-time job from the age of 15. He graduated from Clovis North and CART schools in June, 2019. A couple of months before he died, Zach adopted Rosco, a spunky, cute French Bulldog puppy which brought him a lot of joy.
Zach was the center of our lives. We were both very involved parents. He was a Cub Scout, tried every sport, mostly liked school, enjoyed his friends. As a family, we traveled and vacationed. We exposed Zach to lots of places and experiences. We nurtured and loved him with all our heart.
We became aware of Zach’s addiction in March of 2019 toward the end of his senior year. As a child, he was diagnosed with ADD and later with depression. Depression often goes along with ADD. Lynn’s family has a history of addiction. ADD, depression and a family history of addiction created a trifecta propensity for the disease. While Zach made the choice to experiment with drugs, soon after, the drugs were no longer a choice for him. We started seeing changes in Zach during his teen years such as a change in friends, isolating when at home, moodiness and experimenting with weed. We sought help for Zach – counseling, medication for depression, etc. Looking back on it, we believe that Zach’s addiction to opioids began to take hold in the summer before his senior year.
In March 2019, Zach passed out at school. We contacted a local treatment center to get him assessed that night. The next day, we were told Zach had a serious problem and was addicted to Opana. Opana is an opioid much stronger than Oxycontin or up to 20x stronger when injected. In addition, Zach had experimented with other drugs such as Xanax, Oxy, Percocet, etc.
From the spring of 2019 until his death, Zach worked on his recovery. He sought treatment, struggled through relapses and was making real progress facing, by far, the biggest challenge of his life. Zach relapsed in early January and passed away on January 7, 2020. Zach had been warned about the danger of using when relapsing due to a decrease in his drug tolerance.
We know he believed that death by overdose would not happen to him, but it did on that Tuesday in the very early morning. The worry and concern we faced watching Zach struggle with his addiction was heart wrenching and painful for our family. It has now been replaced by an indescribable sense of loss knowing we will never see him again.
Memories of Zach’s Beautiful Life
There is no getting used to life without Zach. We live every day missing him – it’s like a perpetual ache or hole in our hearts that will forever remain. At best, life is bittersweet…never again will we experience pure joy or happiness as there is a sense of sadness that never goes away. Zach is always missing. No matter what, life will only be as good as it can be without him. In so many ways, Zach was the light of our lives and our future. We loved Zach with all of our hearts, but we now know that was not enough to shield him from this horrific disease.
Jim and I are forever changed due to the loss of our son. Still, we push through to find meaning once again. We want Zach to be remembered. We love to hear his name and to talk about him. We want to help others like Zach who struggle with addiction. We want to reduce the stigma associated with the disease of addiction. We want to educate families about signs of addiction and options for parents.
The Zachary Horton Foundation has been established as a tribute to and is Zach’s legacy. We are currently awaiting final approval for our non-profit status. We have begun our work, but have a ways to go to truly establish the Foundation. We will make Zach proud and maybe a little famous (I think he’d like that). Apart from the Foundation, we continue to take great care of Zach’s spoiled French Bulldog, Roscoe.