Vigil remembers victims of drug crisis

By Lethbridge Herald on April 1, 2021.

A small group of mourners gathered for a candlelight vigil in Galt Gardens Tuesday night to remember those lost in the opioid crisis this past year. Herald photo by Tim Kalinowski

Tim Kalinowski
Lethbridge Herald
tkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com

A silent vigil was held in Galt Gardens Tuesday night for the victims of the opioid crisis lost over the last year.

About 30 people turned up on a cool evening and lit candles to remember the dead, and to help address the grief and trauma of those left behind.

Jenna Aubichon lost both her cousin and her sister to overdoses in the past year.

“It’s a pandemic among everyone right now, and especially this city,” she said. “This city has had so many losses in the past weeks. We have lost so many people due to the addictions.”

Raven White Cow also lost a sister to an overdose, and has known many others who passed away this year.

“The news scares me, because you never know who passed away next,” she confessed. “It’s like an everyday thing. I swear every day it is like someone else, a new loved one, has passed away to the addiction.”

White Cow said there is no way to truly understand such a loss if you have never experienced it.

“A lot of people look at it from the outside,” she said, “and they don’t really understand how it affects families, and how it affects children, and what it actually does. It never goes away.”

“Before I lost my sister I was part of the community that did not look fondly on (addiction),” Aubichon added. “But losing my sister opened my eyes. These people didn’t choose to be where they are at right now with all the trauma and everything.”

The vigil was organized by the Kindness to Others Renewal and Healing Centre organization. Founder Alvin Mills said such events help families and loved ones of the victims in some small measure cope with their unimaginable grief and trauma.

“We wanted to acknowledge the ones we have lost, and also the family members, the mothers, the fathers,” he said. “They are just as impacted by the opioid crisis that we are all going up against. And I think it is important for them to allow that process of grieving.

“For a lot of us, we have unresolved grief. We have trauma we never dealt with, and that’s something that has to be looked at: to start addressing the trauma and the grief. It just keeps getting harder and harder as this crisis continues.”

Lethbridge has one of the highest overdose death rates in the province of Alberta at 44.1 deaths per 100,000 people. About 50 people died of overdoses in Lethbridge in 2020 alone.

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