She was in medical school. He was just out of prison.
Sarah Ziegenhorn and Andy Beeler's romance grew out of a shared passion to do more about the country's drug overdose crisis.
Ziegenhorn moved back to her home state of Iowa when she was 26. She had been working in Washington, D.C., where she also volunteered at a needle exchange _ where drug users can get clean needles. She was ambitious and driven to help those in her community who were overdosing and dying, including people she had grown up with.
"Many people were just missing because they were dead," said Ziegenhorn, now 31. "I couldn't believe more wasn't being done."
She started doing addiction advocacy in Iowa City while in medical school _ lobbying local officials and others to support drug users with social services.
Beeler had the same conviction, born from his personal experience.
"He had been a drug user for about half of his life _ primarily a longtime opiate user," Ziegenhorn said.
Beeler spent years in and out of the criminal justice system for a variety of drug-related crimes, such as burglary and possession. In early 2018, he was released from prison. He was on parole and looking for ways to help drug users in his hometown.
He found his way to advocacy work and, through that work, found Ziegenhorn. Soon they were dating.
"He was just this really sweet, no-nonsense person who was committed to justice and equity," she said. "Even though he was suffering in many ways, he had a very calming presence."
People close to Beeler describe him as a "blue-collar guy" who liked motorcycles and home carpentry, someone who was gentle and endlessly curious. Those qualities could sometimes hide his struggle with anxiety and depression. Over the next year, Beeler's other struggle, with opioid addiction, would flicker around the edges of their life together.
Eventually, it killed him.
