Remembering Matthew Perry: Memorial grows outside "Friends" house in West Village

Perry touched lives beyond "Friends," opening up last year about his battles with drug and alcohol addiction.

"I want to drink all the time because that's when I feel good and normal. But then the drink turns on you and says, 'Well, now I'm going to kill you,'" Perry once said.

"When he spoke about it, it just made everybody feel like we're not alone," said Eve Goldberg, founder of Big Vision Community NYC.

Goldberg lost her son, 23-year-old Isaac, a decade ago to an accidental drug overdose. She read Perry's memoir, "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing." She founded a nonprofit that supports young adults struggling with addictions and living in recovery.

"Everybody also felt like, 'OK, I can get through this. I can survive it also,'" Goldberg said.