United by tragedy
Opioid overdoses bring two families together for a little Christmas magic
Just months ago, Jack and Donna Fletcher were deep in the fog of grief. They had lost their firstborn son to the deadly scourge of opioids and were looking for some way to find light. So they decided to give Christmas to strangers. And the gesture couldn’t have come at a better time.
The Fletchers, who live in Orlando, raised $1,600 through a GoFundMe campaign created in the name of their son, 31-year-old Jason Fletcher.
How, they wondered, could they spend the money in a way that would honor his life?
Then Jack Fletcher stumbled upon an Orlando Sentinel story about three small boys who were orphaned on the side of Interstate 4 on New Year’s Eve 2016 after both of their parents died of a fentanyl overdose. It was the same drug that killed Jason and the most deadly drug in Florida last year, with more than 3,300 fatal overdoses.
The Fletchers felt a connection to the boys they had never met.
“We don’t have grandkids, but my wife just loves buying for kids,” Jack Fletcher said.
“These boys, they’re too young to even know the tragedy they went through.” Jack Fletcher, who created a GoFundMe campaign with his wife, Donna, to give Christmas to strangers in honor of their son who died of a fentanyl overdose
“These boys, they’re too young to even know the tragedy they went through.”
The brothers made national headlines when a Florida Highway Patrol trooper found them crying and still strapped into their car seats that cold December night two years ago on the shoulder of the interstate near DeLand. The boys’ parents lay dead outside the family’s car.
Today Joey, 6, Aiden, 4, and Nicholas, 2 have taken to sometimes calling their grandparents Mike and Lynne Belisle “Daddy” and “Mommy.”
The five became an instant family shortly after the boys were orphaned and settled into life together in the couple’s modest, nearly 100-year-old farmhouse in Quincy, a town of 8,000 people northwest of Tallahassee.
There were sleepless nights at first with the baby, who was 1 at the time. And counseling for the two older boys, then 4 and 2, to help them cope with the loss of their parents.
But all three soon appeared to thrive in the stability of their grandparents’ home.
Then another heartbreak.
In October, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Panhandle, and an oak tree crushed the roof of the Belisles’ home.
That made the timing of the Fletchers’ desire to help the family even more fortunate.
With the Belisles’ permission, the Sentinel helped connect the two families.
They agreed to meet in Tallahassee, where Mike and Lynne Belisle and their three grandsons are staying with a relative until a new mobile home can be delivered to their property in Quincy.
On a recent Saturday, the Fletchers rolled into the driveway in a van rented to hold all the loot for the kids and a surprise for Mike and Lynne.
“You were such good boys, Santa stopped by our house and dropped off
some presents for you,” Jack Fletcher said when he greeted the brothers, who were wearing matching “Best Bro” T-shirts.
Soon the families, strangers just hours before, were on the ground with the kids tearing open piles of gifts.
“Superman!” Aiden squealed as he ripped off wrapping paper to reveal an action figure.
There were superhero toys, light sabers, scooters, shoes, pajamas and more.
When all the toys were opened, the Fletchers unveiled one last gift — this one for Mike and Lynne — a 55-inch flat-screen television bought by Jason Fletcher’s siblings, Eric and his wife, Courtney, and Chelsea.
“In honor of our son — and your daughter,” Jack Fletcher said to the couple.
“Thank you very much,” said a stunned Mike. “Wow,” added Lynne. As the kids played, the couples shared some of their experiences over losing a child to an overdose.
There was the shock over the death, but also a lack of surprise after long battles with addiction. The admonition against blaming oneself.
Jason Fletcher died in August after years of ups and downs with addiction.
Like Mike Belisle’s daughter, Heather Kelsey, and her husband, Daniel, Jason’s drug of choice was pills.
But when he couldn’t get them or they became too expensive, he turned to other substances.
And just like Heather and Daniel Kelsey, the Fletchers say it’s unlikely Jason intentionally ingested fentanyl, which can be as much as 50 times more powerful than heroin.
Heather, Daniel and Jason all had jobs, ambitions and tried, at various times, to push drugs out of their lives.
“Anybody who met Jason loved him,” said Donna Fletcher. “He never got angry, and if he was, it was for two seconds.”
Lynne Belisle said she knows the Fletchers found a few hours of joy watching the boys delight in the gifts.
“It warmed our hearts,” she said. “It’s like it was their home and they were watching their kids, just the looks on their faces. It was very touching. It really did me and Michael some good to see that.”
Jack Fletcher said he was grateful for the opportunity to “make something good out of two terrible tragedies that two families had.”
And he believes his son would be pleased.
“Jason was a very, very giving kid,” Jack Fletcher said.
“He never had money. He always owed me money. But when he had money, he would buy really, really nice presents … I think he would have been very touched.”