Photo by Sydney Cromwell.
Rick and Suzanne Norris stand in front of a portrait of their son, Tripp, who died in 2011 from a combination of alcohol and heroin.
When Rick and Suzanne Norris suspected their son was using drugs, they did all the “right” things. They called him every day and visited him at the University of Alabama every few weeks. They encouraged honest communication and offered help if he needed it. In the end, none of the “right” things mattered.
Ricky David Norris III, known to friends and family as Tripp, died of a mix of alcohol and street heroin on February 25, 2011. He was only 22 years old.
“That’s what’s so scary. Parents can do all the right things and it can still happen,” Suzanne said.
Rick will be speaking at the first Help the Hills town hall meeting on Aug. 18 at 6 p.m. at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church. At this first in a series of community forums, he hopes parents in the audience will learn from his heartbreak and do everything they can to prevent another death happening much too young.
“It was such a waste of a life that had so much to give,” Rick said.
Tripp’s story seems to be part of a larger trend. Leadership Vestavia Hills, the city police department and administrators at Vestavia Hills City Schools have noted increases in the use of heroin, prescription medications and other illegal substances among students. Several initiatives have been created to curb this increased use, including a new Drug Task Force, prescription drop-off boxes, a voluntary student drug testing program and a Help the Hills.
Tripp was a senior English major at Alabama with sharp wit and a passion for music. He always had a notebook in his back pocket to write song lyrics and poems whenever inspiration struck. He referred to everyone as his best friend, which his parents always found funny. When 700 people showed up to Tripp’s funeral, they realized that he truly had hundreds of best friends.
“When you were with Tripp, he was solely focused on you. Nobody else,” Suzanne said. “So he always made a connection with people. He was very in touch with other people.”
However, Tripp had difficulties with substance abuse in high school. Unbeknownst to his parents, he sometimes drank while driving to school and got high with friends on prescription medications. Rick suspects his son was an alcoholic by the time he graduated Vestavia Hills High School in 2006.
Rick and Suzanne knew that Tripp continued to drink in college, and they wondered if he smoked marijuana or used pills. They kept tabs on their son and let him know that he could admit if he had a problem. Tripp denied any substance use and he continued to go to class and get good grades. Despite knowing at least three other VHHS graduates who died of overdoses, the idea of heroin use never crossed their minds.
“You always think it’s going to be someone else’s kid,” Rick said. “I never recognized that there was a problem because for me it was always somebody else’s problem.”
Based on what they learned from Tripp’s friends after his death, Rick and Suzanne believe their son used heroin on several occasions but had been clean for about a year on the night of his overdose. They don’t know why he chose that night to try it again.
Suzanne said she cried every day for about two years after his death. Rick described it as “the same nightmare every day” and said life never really becomes normal again. But when they realized how prevalent heroin and substance abuse was, both in Vestavia Hills and among Tripp’s friends, they decided to bring something good out of the pain of their son’s death.
Rick openly shares the story of Tripp’s death in hopes that where he and his wife failed, others might succeed. He knows he does not have the solution to drug use, but he can still make parents aware of how frighteningly close the problem is to home.
“I don’t want anyone else to go through the same nightmare,” Rick said. “If we’ve got anything we can say that points somebody in the right direction toward things that they see in their own kids and prevents another wasted life, then I think we’ve got some obligation to do that.”
For more information about the Help the Hills event, visit leadershipvestaviahills.com.
