NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A knock on the door woke Nashville Mayor Megan Barry and her husband Bruce out of a sound sleep around 3 a.m. When the mayor saw police at her door, she knew it must be bad news – maybe an officer was shot, and she was needed at the hospital to comfort a grieving family.
Instead, what the officer revealed just wouldn’t register: Her 22-year-old son Max was dead.
“He had to repeat it several times, because that was not what my brain could hear,” Barry said, her voice cracking, during a news conference Monday.
Barry returned to work Monday for the first time since her son died of an apparent drug overdose on July 29.
It marked the start of a “new normal” for the grieving mayor – she won’t ever hear his voice or get his text messages again.