Roman Montano

Our son Roman Montano died at 22 years old on May 2, 2012. Roman began his battle with heroin addiction after he chose to self medicate when his world came crashing down on him 4 months before he graduated in 2008. Roman had the time of his life throughout high school and lived it to the fullest. He was a three sport athlete and especially had a passion for baseball…to him, “baseball was life”! Roman began playing sports as soon as he was old enough. He stood out in every sport he participated because he was big for his age and had the athleticism to go with it. By the time he was a senior in high school he had many scholarship offers and was going to be in the MLB draft in June following graduation. Things didn’t work out the way he had planned when he made a mistake and got into trouble with some boys which consequently led to him being kicked out of sports the rest of his senior year. Roman didn’t expect to lose everything he had worked for over an impulsive mistake. His entire identity to him was being an athlete and he knew he had the rare opportunity to play pro ball…that crushed him not to finish his senior year with a “BANG”, instead he was humiliated in the media and endured intense ridicule and shame. Although we reassured our son that it would pass and he still had his entire life ahead of him, he was devastated. He began using pain pills to escape his turmoil which led him to heroin. We were shocked when we discovered he was using heroin and immediately got him help. He never went to rehab or counseling despite our insistence and instead chose to see a doctor who prescribed suboxone. He continued taking the suboxone and seemed to be moving forward in life. He enrolled at UNM, joined a fraternity, entered a bodybuilding competition, and even got into MMA. Roman had remarkable work ethic and self discipline in anything he did. For the most part that period of time he was clean, but there were a couple of times we believed he had slipped for a weekend here & there but continued to try very hard to stay on track. Because Roman didn’t use on a daily basis and didn’t fit the stereotypical image of a “heroin addict”, I guess we were all in denial at different levels, including Roman. We never expected for him to relapse, let alone die.

Roman loved cars and loved to socialize. He had more cars in his short life than most adults have in a lifetime. He was also a neat freak and obsessive about his clothes and being organized to the point that it made us laugh. Roman was full of life and we know he didn’t expect to die. He for reasons we will never know, relapsed the day he died. He had a great life with family who loved him and adored him. He had a new baby girl and a fiancé he loved very much. He had just been in contact with a man at NFL headquarters in New York who wanted to get him a tryout….life was good for him. Roman was well known throughout the community and the state for his status as an athlete, he was loved by so many people because of his kindness and genuine personality. He smiled all the time, was a people person and extremely funny. We miss him more than words can ever express. Losing our beautiful Roman has profoundly impacted our lives with inconceivable pain and anguish. We miss him so much in our lives and still feel like it’s a bad dream or nightmare that he’s gone.

– JoAnn (mom), Bo (dad), Beau (brother), Mikaila (fiancé), and Addyson (daughter)