Our backyards sit in the beautiful foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We are surrounded by acres of bucolic and beautiful country, gently rolling hills, emerald green pastures, gracious and charming estates and cottages, fat and healthy cattle, and well cared for, grazing horses. Lovely, winding roads, bordered by dry-stacked rock walls or dense woodland, lead from our backyards to fine restaurants, historic sites, museums, and places of worship in close by villages, and to companionship with lovely and mannered people.

But, eleven of these people have died from overdoses of opiates, including heroin, since January of 2018, according to Captain Ray Acors of the Fauquier Sheriff's Office. And each victim of these tragic and traumatic events left behind families - many of them also neighbors - that will forever grieve and suffer the ramifications of such pointless loss, while 38 other families, with loved ones who suffered, though survived, overdoses during the same time period, continue to despair at the possibility of losing their child, their husband, their wife, their sister or their brother to substance abuse.

Moira Satre is one of these neighbors, having lost her eldest son, Bobby, to a heroin overdose in 2015. Bobby was raised in a loving and stable home, received a fine education in one of Middleburg's private schools and enjoyed many of the advantages that our neighborhood offers, yet turned to drugs. Remembering the helplessness and isolation she felt during the years Bobby attempted to fight his addiction and determined to help other addicts and their families as a way of coping with her own crippling grief upon his death, Moira founded "Come As You Are" (CAYA), an organization determined to "help addicts and their families [by] connecting people to helpful resources, available treatments and support groups [and by raising] community awareness on substance abuse through local prevention programs in Fauquier, Culpeper, Rappahannock, Madison and Orange Counties."

By way of example, CAYA's website, www.cayacoalition.org, offers quick access to various support groups, including FODA (Families Overcoming Drug Addiction), Helplines, assistance in finding recovery coaches, a link to an evidence-based, mental health and substance addiction prevention movie that Fauquier County Schools has adopted into its curriculum, and a sign up for participation in "The Travis Project", a program started by the Fauquier County Sheriff's office that equips deputies with life-saving Naloxone.

Additionally, information regarding CAYA's 5 K Run, an event designed to promote awareness in the community and to raise funds for future projects, and that is scheduled for September 22, 2018, is available either online or by calling CAYA's Warrenton office at 540-219-5696.

Our backyards are bucolic. And our neighbors are lovely and mannered people. But, there's not one of them that doesn't also mourn and suffer, strive and fail and grow weary, sometimes, from burdens that seem too great to bear. I'm grateful, therefore, that because of neighbors like Moira and organizations like CAYA, our backyards are also brave and honest, indomitable and compassionate.