Rob Fay, April 29, 2021
I have loved and respected Gia since the day I met her.
Gia told me to help her story get out there. The true story, specifically “Not the story my mother would tell”.
She wanted me to talk to people, children, teens, adults, anyone who would listen, about the dangers and the horrors of addiction.
She wanted me to do it in the hopes that if even one person was spared the pain, misery and loneliness of the disease of addiction, her death would not be in vain.
I have honored her command for the past 35 years. I have traveled the country and visited many schools, colleges, prisons, psych wards, and my personal favorite, youth detention centers. I have seen firsthand many lives turned around directly because of Gia’s story. With the advent of the internet, Facebook and now, Zoom, this great legacy of hers continues.
Some of you may have never seen addiction up close. Some of you may not know anyone who has brutally affected by this disease. I highly doubt it. The disease of addiction has ravaged your town, county, state, nation and world.
Gia was one of the most humble people that I have ever met. She taught me how to live. She hardly spoke of her modeling career. It meant nothing to her.
She was devastated by the lack of real friends she had. I can still feel her pain as she cried about no one in that whole modeling world would call her back in the summer of 86.
Gia’s story of addiction has saved thousands of lives, I am sure. And it was not because she had a pretty face. Gia’s suffering must always be held above her pictures because that is where the healing comes from.