OXFORD, Ohio — For Jordan Stockelman, there are only good things to say about the woman who gave her life.
“She’s beautiful,” the 20-year-old said fondly. “If she were here, I’d tell her one more time that I love her.”
That love would come in the form of incredible strength: Five years ago, she watched her mother and role model, Julie, lose her battle with alcoholism. She was 40 when she died.
Now, Stockelman has launched a nonprofit awareness campaign, aptly named “I Love You More Than You Know,” devoted to helping people with addiction — all in honor of her mother. The group’s first event is scheduled for July.
“The fight she was forced to face… There are times where I could really see in her eyes it was my mom, and she wanted to get help,” Stockelman said.
“She didn’t choose this.”
Part of Stockelman’s mission is to convey to people that addiction is a disease, and to combat the stigmas that addiction is a choice or that it makes someone a “bad person.”
“Addiction is an epidemic and it affects more and more people every day,” she said. “Heroin is becoming such a problem — addiction in general. Bring the community together to help each other… help each other understand the disease. Help another person who is going through it.”
And through it all, Stockelman shows us all that her mother’s fighting spirit is still alive in her.
