CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Gathering to remember 'Other Epidemic' on Monday

Gloucester Daily Times - 8/28/2021

Aug. 28—Lost in the media's preoccupation with the COVID 19 pandemic has been the continuing death toll of the "other epidemic," the one that began not in a wet market in Wuhan, China, but right in our own doctors' offices: the opioid epidemic.

This Monday, Aug. 30, Gloucester once again remembers its victims as the city's 11th annual Opioid Vigil gathers at sunset, rows of luminaries glowing quietly on the waterfront, down on Stacy Boulevard by the flag pole near the Blynman Bridge, also known as the Cut bridge.

Kathy Day, who since its inception in 2011 has been the keeper of those memorial luminaries, says that this year, as last year, the vigil will be scaled back due to the recent COVID-19 variant surge. While some of its established rituals —a solemn roll call of names of loved ones lost, live music, song, commentary, photos and memories shared — will once again need to be dispensed with, the luminaries, which she describes as "the heart and soul" of the vigil, will be there, albeit safely distanced.

Back at that first vigil in 2011, Day says there were "maybe a hundred luminaries." There are now well over 700.

Plain paper bags, each bearing the name of a loved one and a message of remembrance, when lit from within, create a sacred space. And as darkness descends on the Outer Harbor, boats as well as people, are drawn to them. Even more than the vigil's music, songs and spoken words, they create a presence out of the absence of these hundreds of brothers, sisters, mother, fathers, sisters, brothers, and perhaps most poignantly, teenagers who were not much more than children when they died.

The event, which, at its first gathering was so controversial that its organizers were forced to move it from its original planned location at the Fishermen's Memorial, has over the years grown to attract hundreds, becoming over time an annual source of city pride.

Though Day has been organizing the vigil for these 11 years, she says that year by year, the vigil has become more and more of a community-run effort.

On Monday, the luminaries will be weighted with small cans of food bound for The Open Door's food pantry. Staff from the Open Door will be present at the vigil to collect non-perishable food donations (nothing in glass please), and they can be dropped in advance at the front desk at Cape Ann Lanes. 53 Gloucester Ave.; at the Gloucester Police Community Impact Unit, Browns Mall, 186 Main St. Suite 23 (outside office door). Items most needed are tuna, beans, soups, and vegetables.

The vigil's purpose —to provide a place of peace, support and remembrance, while de-stigmatizing and raising understanding of substance use disorder — has been more than fulfilled. It has helped foster a more empathetic understanding of substance use disorder within the community.

That, in turn, almost certainly contributed in 2015 to the launch of the city's innovative Angel program, and, in the same year, to Gloucester becoming the first city in Massachusetts in which both fire and police departments carried nasal Narcan, the opioid inhibitor now universally used by first responders to treat an opioid overdose. Nasal Narcan will, in fact, be on hand at this year's vigil, along with health care instructors from One Stop, a harm reduction clinic, who will demonstrate how to use it.

Like COVID-19, the opioid epidemic has come to claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans lives. But unlike COVID-19, there is no cure for it. There has, however, been progress, Research has led to new understanding of the biology of addiction, and there have been major reforms in the way pain medications are marketed, prescribed and used.

Gloucester's fishing industry is notoriously tough on the joints and muscles of its "men who go down to the sea in boats, " and, says Kathy Day, as with any profession involving strenuous skilled labor, pain management can make the difference between work and disability.

We can't bring back those lost to substance use disorder, says Day, but anyone who "walks those luminaries" can feel how much their lives mattered.

IF YOU GO

What: "Luminaries and Love," Gloucester's 11th Annual Overdose Vigil in observance of International Overdose Awareness Day, welcomes all to 'walk the luminaries' illuminating the waterfront in memory of those lost to substance abuse disorder. Social distancing and masks will be observed.

When: Monday evening, Aug. 30, 7 p.m. (6:30 for making and lighting luminaries). Rain date, Aug. 31.

Where: Stacy Boulevard, by the flag pole near the Blynman Bridge (best GPS address 99 Western Ave.)

Questions? Call Kathy Day at 781-258-8948 or visit Gloucester Overdose Vigil on Facebook.

___

(c)2021 the Gloucester Daily Times (Gloucester, Mass.)

Visit the Gloucester Daily Times (Gloucester, Mass.) at www.gloucestertimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.