Barbara Blaze DEAD FRIENDS

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Born June 18, 1936. Atlantic New Jersey.

Barbara Blaze went to prison as a juvenile for murder. When she got out of prison she dedicated her life to helping Junkies. She died from Liver Cancer in the year 2000.

Blaze told me - When you are a fat kid, you are the joke. I wanted more than anything in the world to be a ballerina. but I ended up in the Roller Derby. What else can you become when you look like me? Then came Jail and it was no more tears ever again. Fuck with me now! Hate became my best friend; it was always there. Now I had a room full of friends who were scared to death of me, saying Anything you want Blaze.
The God Mother of Narcotics Anonymous passed away last night. Barbara Blaze from Atlantic City, NJ, has gone on to be with so many other heavy hitters; gone on to that big NA meeting in the sky. She passed with 26 years clean in NA. I wish to pass on to you a poem she wrote:

To All My Clean Babies In NA:
The Junkie Mother.
Now through you....
My dreams can come true....
Remember my years heavy with sorrow....
Make of these years ....
A torch for tomorrow...
Make my past.....
A road to light....
Believe in yourself....
Let none push you down....
Look upward to the stars...
For I will be with you....
Till no one dares keep you down....
The children of a junkie mother............From Blaze.
May the light from the love she has bestowed on this fellowship,
burn so bright, if the sun never shone again,
we would be warmed by her love.

Hi There,
My name is Gillis L. and I live in Regina, Saskatchewan. I was looking for
some NA humor....... we are having our twentieth convention and I'm MCing
it. That's why I was looking for some good jokes. On Sept 18/01 I lost a
good friend of mine to brain cancer, he lived to do 12 step work and do a
lot of 12 step work he did.

So out of curiosity I clicked on the link of
addicts that died. .......and once again I seen another friend of mine on
your site. That addict was Blaze, I had the privilege and honor to spend
about a week with Blaze when she came to Regina to speak at a Convention
about 10 years ago. She spent her entire time with me and my family, she
refused to get a hotel room and said to me that she wanted to spend her
time here with a family, a real family. Well we had a gas and had some real
memorable moments, one in particular was that after the convention on
Sunday we went out to the reserve, where I have plenty of relatives and I
took her to her first powwow.

She was totally amazed by all the colors and
bells and even more so by the heavy beating of the drums. I never really
noticed the impact that would have on a person until I lost track of her
for a moment I then looked around the tent to see her sitting by some
drummers and watching the dancers. When she looked at me there were tears
rolling down her face, she walked slowly over to me and said she has never
felt anything like this before in her entire life. I now look at powwows a
little differently.

I then got some of friends to come over and meet this
women from NewJersey, they had the full native outfits on and we got some
picture of her and her new Indian friends. She then asked my friend Dutch,
if she could pack him up and take him home. We all had a great laugh. I
then took her to my cousin and introduced her to him, and telling her he
was the Grand Chief of all the Indians in the province of Saskatchewan. She
was could not believe what she was hearing and then asked him if he was a
real Chief.

He started to laugh and asked her where she was from. We a
great visit with him and she was so interested to learn about Indians. She
then asked him if she could pack him up and take him home. We had another
great laugh.

But the interesting part comes now, When wife then and I parted of course
we go through pain and I was staying with my brother. All of a sudden the
phone rings:
Hello
Hi is Gillis there speaking Gillis, this is Blaze
That's all I needed to hear and I fell apart on the phone, I told that last
nite I was so full of pain that didn't think that I was going to last the
nite. She told that in the middle of the nite she felt that I was in pain
and that she had to phone me the following day to find out what was going
on. we talked for a long and this what friendship and love the NA way is
all about. Thank for posting that picture of her, I love her dearly.

Gillis