The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
TEARS AND HOPE
Residents gather for vigil on Opioid Awareness Day
TORRINGTON » People came together for a candlelight vigil at Coe Memorial Park Thursday, supporting those battling addiction and remembering those gone before their time.
The vigil, as well as a preceding resource fair, was organized by the Litchfield County Opiate Task Force, a group formed in 2013 to battle the rise of opiates in the Northwest Corner.
Individuals at the vigil stepped forward to share their stories, filled with pain, struggle, loss, and hope.
Mary Yard told the story of her brother, Chuck, who died as a result of his addiction to opiates. He played basketball, had been a Boy Scout, but became addicted to opiates after an accident in his teenage years. He progressed to heroin. After going to rehab and having periods of sobriety, he used heroin laced with fentanyl, and died on May 20, 2016.
“This is not to be swept under the rug or hidden like a dirty secret. There’s no shame in this. We all must support and share in helping those that struggle with an addiction,” said Yard. “It must be an open conversation among all of us. It must be discussed for what it is — a disease.”
Gordon Lyde, a New Haven native and Torrington resident, said he has been sober for nine years and now worked as a case worker, seeking to aid those battling addiction. He talked about his efforts to get clean and stay that way, and working with, and losing, city residents.
“There is hope because their lives and their deaths
“This is not to be swept under the rug or hidden like a dirty secret. There’s no shame in this. We all must support and share in helping those that struggle with an addiction.”
— Mary Yard, sister of a victim of an opioid overdose
(do) not have to be in vain. A lesson can be learned from it,” said Lyde. “A community can be healed from it.”
Hope was a common watchword from the speakers in attendance. Lyde pointed to his own story as an example.
“This is coming from the individual — let me qualify — an individual that’s from the streets of New Haven, that’s a total crackhead, drunk, fall-down, inmate numbers in multiple states, have over 23 felony convictions,” said Lyde. “And I work in a facility today that offers hope to people. And if that’s not a miracle, and if that’s not an example of hope, I don’t know what (is).”
At the end of the evening, the crowd lit candles. People went around to share a spark, and then stood together as the names of those lost were read aloud.
They held a series of discrete points of light, which, when taken together, burned brightly in the late summer night.
The opiate epidemic has become an issue of significance in the Northwest Corner, as it has across the state and the nation. Local services providers, including McCall, recently released a report illustrating the impact it has had on the region.
Earlier this week, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner projected that more than 1,000 people will die from drug overdoses in Connecticut this year.
International Overdose Awareness Day was recognized Thursday in Connecticut.