Candlelight flickered Thursday as the community came together to remember those who lost their lives to a drug overdose and those who continue to fight addiction.

“This is a reflective gathering as we come together to honor those who have had lives touched and devastated with the effect of overdose,” Allen Parish Community Healthcare Hospital Chief Executive Officer Jackie Reviel said. “Overdose and alcohol addiction come with a lot of stigma and judgment and we are trying to dispel that in Allen Parish. Tonight we light these candles to shine the light on the importance of awareness, compassion and support for our community.”

Many of those attending the International Overdose Awareness Day ceremony were mourning the loss of a loved one to drugs, while others were celebrating the survivors who continue to struggle daily to overcome their addiction.

Judy Hebert of Kinder, whose daughter, Gabby, died from an overdose after taking a fentanyl-laced pill in March 2022, shared her daughter’s struggles and how her death has inspired the family to want to help others and save lives.

“I don’t give statistics in my speeches because people will remember the cold, hard truth, sad story of a little girl that was addicted,” she said. “She wasn’t a junkie, she was addicted.”

Hebert said her story is a story of trust, addiction and of death.

“I hope and pray that it impacts you enough to always stay away from drugs or find a way to help somebody who struggles from drugs,” she said.

Hebert said her daughter’s death was an overdose not by the action of herself, but of the actions of a dealer and friend.

“She was poisoned with fentanyl, with one pill on March 8, 2022, at the young age of 19,” she said.

Gabby probably began using drugs off and on from her early teens till her death after being introduced to them from her friends, she said.

“In the years before her passing, she took it upon herself to try harder stuff, like pills of all sorts….,” she said. “She always told me she was trying to sleep through her depression.”

She said Gabby did not take the medicine that she knew would help her, but choose to go elsewhere to find something to help with the pain of the cruel words from friends, the cruel world of social media and unacceptance from others. She said she never felt worthy and loved by her friends because of her faults.

After graduating from high school, Gabby moved to Lake Charles where the heavy drug use began, she said.

“Being in Lake Charles promoted an easier way to find drugs and what she was trying to escape from,” she said. “They knew her and she knew them.”

She said Gabby would spiral down, come home to get cleaned up and cry, saying she didn’t want to be an addict, but she didn’t know how not to be an addict, Hebert said. She continued her drug use even after near-death experiences and unsuccessful attempts at rehab.

“Disappointed, mad and hurt by her actions, I knew I couldn’t stop her,” she said. “She told me she knew it was all up to her to stay clean and she had to do it on her own.”

Just days before her death, Gabby returned home and appeared to be getting her life together, but a choice to take “one last pill” ended her life forever, Hebert said.

“A piece of my heart died that day and I can never get it back,” she said, graphically describing seeing her daughter’s cold, lifeless body in bed. “She had trusted a friend and a dealer with a pill not knowing it was laced with fentanyl. Not knowing she would never wake up. Not knowing she would hurt everyone who loved her and not knowing she would be gone forever.”

“She didn’t kill herself,” she continued. “She didn’t overdose on purpose and she didn’t know she was going to die. She was poisoned by the selfish, relentless friends and dealers she had come to trust. There are safer ways to deal with life than drugs, you just have to get the help you need and take care of yourself.”

The day after Gabby was buried, Gabby’s uncle, Sheriff Doug Hebert III worked with the state lawmakers to get Gabby’s Law passed making it legal to carry testing strips to test pills or other drugs for fentanyl.

“Our hope is to save at least one life with her story and to save other families from the pain you see here,” she said. “Addiction is giving up everything for one thing. Recovery is giving up one thing for everything. Gabby knew this, but thought she needed that one thing to make it through life.”

Doug Hebert III said he supports local agencies working with law enforcement to try to help those with drug and alcohol problems turn their lives around and send those to jail who are dealing drugs on the street.

“What we are doing as law enforcement, the justice system and the Legislature is to make sure whatever we can do, we are doing to keep our kids and families safe,” he said. “We are taking a hard line with a two prong deal to say, ‘If you are going to do that in our parish and our state, you are going to go to prison for as long as we can send you without benefit of probation or parole’ and at the same time, try to make it easier for people who are battling addiction to get that help without having to wonder where do I go and what do I do,” he said.