Zach Challingsworth wakes up each morning to the sight of a black-and-white photo that takes up nearly an entire bedroom wall, one of the last photos he has with his big brother, Tyler.
That's the memory, the two tailgating before a Kenny Chesney concert at Heinz Field, Zach doesn't want to forget. The brothers are smiling. Wearing sunglasses. Each has an arm around the other's shoulder.
It's a much better image than the one Zach can't get out of his mind.
Tyler was blue in the face when Zach and his dad walked into his bedroom in January. His mom frantically dialed 911, but she was too upset to talk. Tyler survived that overdose, and quickly left for a rehab center in Florida. It was the last time Zach saw his older brother.
One month later, Tyler overdosed again and died before his family could reach the Florida hospital. He was three weeks away from his 24th birthday.
Tyler and Zach didn't have too many pictures together in recent years as heroin tore down Zach's only sibling. That's why Zach clings to this one _ just the two Challingsworth boys, both former standout wide receivers for South Fayette High School in Pennsylvania, with the words "Forever Brothers" in the bottom right corner.
Tyler's family and friends likewise want to preserve their memories of a promising life before addiction destroyed it. But they also want to tell his story. The ups, the downs, their jarring revelation that a standout athlete with a passion for music and a "good life" could get so lost.
"We don't understand," his mother, Betsy, said sitting next to her husband, Dave, at the family's pristine home in South Fayette. "That's the same question you would ask somebody who commits suicide. Why would they do that? There's something inside of you, like you can't see what everybody else sees."
