A Man's Obituary For His Daughter Has Gone Viral

Unless the person in question is a celebrity, when someone passes away from a drug overdose, it's tempting to tiptoe around the subject in the hopes of softening the blow. Tom Parks' obituary for his daughter, however, took an entirely different approach, and as a result, it is being read on a scale he never could have imagined. Rather than ambiguously referring to her cause of death, he begins by stating that Molly Alice Parks passed away "as the result of a heroin overdose," and it only gets more candid from there.The obituary was published online earlier this month and quickly went viral, BuzzFeed reports. Parks bluntly describes how addiction came to rule his daughter's life, writing that she “graduated from Old Orchard Beach High School in 2009 and attended one year at SMCC until her addiction took over." Although she "fought her addiction to heroin for at least five years" and had gone through an overdose in the past, she "made a lot of bad decisions including experimenting with drugs," ending in her death this year, he wrote. Heroin may have been the cause of her death, but Parks wrote that his daughter "will always be remembered for fearless personality and her trademark red lipstick."

Molly Alice Parks left behind her parents as well as a sister, two step-siblings, and many other family members who "truly loved her and tried to be as supportive as possible as she struggled with the heroin epidemic that has been so destructive to individuals and families in her age bracket." Parks closed with a final, touching message to anyone struggling with addiction in their own lives.

If you have any loved one's who are fighting addiction, Molly's family asks that you do everything possible to be supportive, and guide them to rehabilitation before it is too late [sic].

Around the world, people are praising the obituary for its unflinching honesty.

You can read Molly Alice Parks' obituary in full online. If you or a loved one is struggling with heroin addiction, you can find help nearby through the National Health Service website.

Images: Dads.Co/Twitter