Though still grieving, Matthew Perry’s loved ones are turning his death into a legacy of helping others

Matthew Perry often spoke about how much he wanted to help people. One year after his death, those who loved him are healing with the same sentiment at the forefront of their minds.

Matthew Perry often spoke about how much he wanted to help people. One year after his death, those who loved him are healing with the same sentiment at the forefront of their minds. “It’s been hard on everyone,” Perry’s sister Caitlin Morrison told CNN in a recent interview. Morrison, who is the daughter of Suzanne Morrison and Perry’s stepfather, ‘Dateline’ correspondent Keith Morrison, serves as the executive director for the Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada, which launched just last week. It had been the actor’s longtime dream help others struggling with addiction. Now, those who knew him best are working to make his wish a reality in his absence. The Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada is focused on providing housing, mental health, career and financial support to individuals in their first year of recovery as they navigate what Morrison described as a “very tenuous time in early sobriety,” a time she said she experienced Perry also struggle with. “I remember him saying quite a few times that that first year was just such a beast. There were so many roadblocks and so many difficulties,” she recalled. “We thought it would be kind of exactly a thing that would be aligned with something he wanted to do, to say, ‘Well, let’s help people. Let’s help people get past that hurdle that was such a high and difficult hurdle to get over when he was first fighting his battle.’”