The recovery community is reeling this week, after the death of Laurie Quinn.
“She was someone who really felt that her passion and her calling in life was to help people struggling with substance use disorder and help them survive.”
Courtney Lovell was her long-time friend, and co-founder of Our Wellness Collective in Columbia County.
“Laurie really did pioneer this idea of allies and family members becoming pivotal points in people’s lives, points of support and compassion to help healing.”
The idea is one that Morgan Dow and his mother Janet have embraced.
As part of Morgan's recovery from drug addiction, together they spent the last year or so attending Laurie's weekly virtual meetings.
Morgan said, “It made me feel confident and better about myself to the point where I felt the confidence to seek healthy relationships and to amend the relationships I’ve broken with my family.
Janet said, “I believe everyone in our Tuesday meeting felt the same, we all felt connection, so warm and supportive and likeable... yeah.”
The feeling of mother helping son is one that Laurie had intimate experience with, as her two sons battled addiction.
“Because Laurie was the advocate and ally that she was she was really able to help her sons find harm reduction and find treatment and ultimately find recovery and they’re thriving in life today and that’s what she wanted for every family that was impacted by substance use disorder.”
Lovell says that desire to help, and show people what she called radical love, will be part of Laurie's legacy.
Morgan meanwhile - has something more tangible in mind.
“To carry on the legacy is, I’ve had a passion to do this work professionally and try and get back into the field and in honor of Laurie, I would like to have a family, be a credentialed family counselor.”
With memories of Laurie as a mentor, he's off to a strong start.
Laurie Quinn was 58 years old.