Marty Canagany said she knew exactly what had happened when her phone rang the morning of Sept. 11, 2010. One of her son's best friends called her and said, "Momma, Jarrod's not looking so good. He isn't breathing, and he's blue."
"I knew at the split second that my son was gone," Canagany said. "I knew my baby was gone."
Canagany spoke to Ball State students in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Thursday night about her son, Indiana University student Jarrod Polston, who died of asphyxiation in Studebaker West Complex last semester.
In a presentation called "Forever Choices," she talked to students about the night her son died while teaching the packed room a little about prescription drugs and what happened to her family after her son passed away.
Canagany said Polston left his home in Greenwood, Ind. the Friday before his death and headed to Ball State for what he and his friends were calling a "bro-union."
Toxicology reports showed Polston consumed three or four Methadone tablets before leaving, which led to his death.
"I would bet that there are many people in this room who have made bad choices," Canagany said. "I thought my son would be there forever. I thought I would die before he would."
Before leaving the house, Canagany told her son to be safe and make good choices – something she knows every parent says to their children. She never knew that it would be the last time she saw him alive.
Throughout the presentation, Canagany reminded students about how their decisions affect them and those around them.
"We make stupid decisions all the time and we never think that it could be our last stupid decision," Shayla Smith, a Ball State freshman and marketing major who attended the event, said.
Canagany also stressed the importance of educating oneself about different drugs and the effects they have on the body.
She said that she knows her son's friends would never have let him go to sleep that night if they knew he would never wake up again.
At the end of the presentation, Canagany shared what life has been like for her family since Polston's death. She specifically cited Christmas and Polston's birthday on Dec. 27.
Sophomore nursing major Katelyn Dillard, who is a family friend of Polston's family, had a hand in bringing Canagany to Ball State to speak.
"'Forever Choices' is a great way to show students the irreversible consequences that can happen when we make unsafe decisions and how much it can truly effect the people we love," she said.
Freshman exercise science major Alexis Palkovich said she walked away with a better understanding of consequences.
"I learned how much it hurts the family and friends and how big an impact [death] is," she said.
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