Opioid crisis victims remembered
Special memorial service at St. John’s
Clare Keast describes her son late Kevin as “a wonderful man” – a social worker at a hospital in Toronto and a father of two small children.
His overdose death two years ago at age 36 came as a shock to many, she said: He’d hidden a six-year drug addiction from all his friends.
“My son was alone when he died – and ashamed of his addiction,” she said. “I just want to remember my son – he was a wonderful man who didn’t deserve to die.”
Keast was one of about 20 people at St. John’s Anglican Church on Friday for a special service in memory of those who’ve died in the opioid crisis.
Friday was International Overdose Awareness Day, and Rev. Christian Harvey said the service was open to anyone who wanted to come and honour a lost loved one.
“This is a horrendous time – we’ve lost far too many people,” said Harvey, a deacon at St. John’s and the director of Warming Room Community Ministries (which operates both the Warming Room emergency shelter and the One Roof Diner free meal program).
Harvey encouraged people at the service to stand and share stories about the lost loved one, and then light a candle in their memory.
Peterborough has an opioid problem: the city and county had the fourth highest rate of opioidrelated deaths in the province last year, according to the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network.
People gathered at the service Friday said the crisis is only worsening locally.
One attendee said he’s lost 11 friends to opioid overdoses; another tearfully said she’d lost a family member only days earlier.
Hope Carson spoke about how her grandson, Keagan, died of a fentanyl overdose a year ago.
She said Keagan, 21, had lived off and on with her as he was growing up. He was 72 days clean when he relapsed and died.
Carson wears a gold pendant around her neck bearing the thumbprint of her “fun-loving and caring” grandson as a constant reminder of him.
“We need to do something – and it needs to start at the hospital,” she said, adding that she thinks more medical help is needed.
Gail Parry said her daughter, Jodi Smith, died on Aug. 11 of a heroin overdose; she was 44 and had two daughters and a baby grandchild.
She’d been put on a waiting list for treatment for her drug addiction five years ago, Parry said.
“It’s a problem – we need more treatment available,” Parry said. “So much more has to be done.”
NOTE: A free public gathering called Understanding the Opioid Crisis will take place on Sept. 26 at Selwyn Outreach Centre on Lakefield Rd. Speakers will include medical officer of health
Dr. Rosana Salvaterra, paramedic supervisor and firefighter
Dan Farrow and retired police officer Jim Carson (who lost his grandson, Keagan, to an overdose). The speakers begin at 7 p.m. Call Selwyn Outreach Centre’s office for more information at 705-742-9258