In My Life: A Story of Surviving Addiction and Defying Death

Born in a small town in western Pennsylvania in the late 1950s, Tony Cesare had everything a boy could want, from a father who played baseball with him to doting grandparents.

But then the local factory began laying off workers, including members of his family—and his idyllic childhood came to an end.

When he reached his teens, he turned to alcohol and drugs. Soon, he was stealing Social Security money from his grandparents to survive, rationalizing that they wouldn’t notice if he only t...