AKRON, Ohio -- Michael Holmes just wanted to spend more time with his father.
Ray Holmes worked as a bricklayer for more than a quarter-century. The toll it took on his body led to an 18-year prescription pain pill addiction. His 25-year-old son never said a word about it to anyone.
"I didn't let the heroin or any of the partying take away from my time with my dad, as long as I still got to be with my dad," Michael Holmes said. "That's all that mattered to me. Now I regret not saying something a lot sooner. I should have got on his ass and told him how pissed off I was."
Roy Holmes, 46, died Jan. 8 of a heroin and fentanyl overdose. He was the second of some 160 who died from overdosing on the drugs in Summit County in 2015.
He started out as a bricklayer for Allied Bricklayers and Craftworkers Local 7 union when 20. The hard work broke down his body over the years and he eventually required surgery to have pins placed throughout his arm. That's when he started an 18-year pill addiction.
Roy Holmes kept working and kept spending time with his son. He encouraged his sone to get into the construction business where the two sometimes worked side-by-side. He also encouraged his son to get into the bricklayers union.
"One of the last things we talked about was that he was upset I hadn't really got my foot in the door in much of anything," Michael Holmes said.
He also loved riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle and hanging out with his friends in the Kenmore bars.
His best friend and motorcycle-riding partner died, he was stressed out from caring for his paralyzed mother and became depressed, Michael Holmes said.
Doctors cut Roy Holmes off from his pain medication in 2014 and started using heroin. He overdosed 16 times that year but survived each time, his son said. After the last one before his death, he told his son he wanted to change both of their lives.
They started working out together and planned more fishing trips. They also planned a trip to visit family in Florida. That's why his son never said anything to his mom or aunt. He wanted to spend time with his dad and didn't want people getting the wrong impression.
"I didn't want people to look at my dad as a drug addict or a failure or that he didn't care about anything," he said.
His dad stayed with him for two weeks around the Christmas holiday in 2014. He overdosed again about a week before his death. As Michael Holmes drove his dad home from the hospital, his dad called area rehab clinics trying to get into their programs.
One said it could get him in later in the week, but weren't able to offer him any immediate help since he no longer had the drug in his system, Michael Holmes said.
"After that we gave up," Michael Holmes said.
He said his father's girlfriend could sense things were getting worse. She told him he needed to get sober.
"She told him, 'Roy, I can't be the one to go to your son's house and tell him you're not alive anymore,'" Michael Holmes said. "And sure as s--t, that's what happened."
A friend went to pick up Roy Holmes for work the morning of Jan. 8, 2015 at his apartment on Hancock Avenue. He found him dead on the floor and called 911.
His son is still struggling to come to terms with his death.
"It's hard to play all happy, like I'm doing good and have everything figured out, look at me, blah, blah, blah," Michael Holmes said. "For my family in Barberton, I have to act all right. I'm weird like that. I don't like acting like anything fazes me. So I just bottle it down."