After the Roundup: Clairton couple lament daughter following a route to drugs
Share with others:
Charles and Sharon Wade of Clairton wrestled with drug addictions and dabbled in dealing. Later they prayed that their daughter, Aretha, after seeing their struggles, would make better choices.
They thought she had -- she was, after all, a high school athlete and cheerleader, then a college student and later a hard worker who always seemed to rise to managerial positions. But on Dec. 14, 2010, she called in a panic. "She's like, 'Dad, you've got to come up here, the feds are in my house,' " said the Rev. Wade, of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Elizabeth Township. "We were shocked to find out."
Their daughter, Aretha L. Smith, was one of 42 people indicted in the fall of 2010 in a Mon Valley-centered drug sweep. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is exploring the effects of the roundup one year later.
For the Wades, their daughter's call, subsequent guilty plea and departure for prison have spurred endless questions. Why does a promising, employed young person end up in the drug business? Is it a question of parenting, or is the broader environment to blame? And when a 32-year-old woman goes from professional to prisoner, what does the future hold?
- Day 1: Effects of drug bust
- Incarceration hard on families
- Day 2: Curbing future street crime
- Mass arrests can be beneficial
- Day 3: A daughter's route to drugs
- Sentencing rules give leverage
A year after their daughter's arrest, and a week after she was sentenced to three years and one month in prison for conspiring to sell more than a half-kilogram of cocaine, Rev. Wade sat on his couch and Mrs. Wade stood in the kitchen doorway, both still wondering what went wrong.
"She's seen, firsthand, what that lifestyle did to us," said Rev. Wade, "so it's baffling that she chose that."
Charles Wade grew up in Clairton, and met Sharon, from Kentucky, while both were in the military. After living for a while in Kentucky, they came back to Clairton, with then-14-year-old Aretha, to watch over Rev. Wade's elderly parents.
First Published January 3, 2012 12:00 am
