By Sherry Larson
People’s Defender
September is Recovery Month. Every week we celebrate recovery stories, and we will continue to rejoice with those conquering addiction. This week we discuss remembrance for those lost to drug overdose and fentanyl poisoning.
Marla Ayres of Manchester, Ohio, lost her daughter to fentanyl poisoning. She decided to record a video for TikTok to make others aware of the dangers of fentanyl. The video begins with Ayres sharing, “I created this page “Light Into Darkness” in honor of my daughter Angie, who will be forever 27 years old.” By the following day, her TikTok was viral.
Ayres explains that on September 9, 2018, she and her mother took Angie out for an enjoyable dinner and dropped her back home a few hours later. They hugged and said, “I love you’s,” Angie asked Marla to meet her the following day for breakfast at Denny’s. Ayres said, “Tomorrow never came for Angie. I was sitting at Denny’s parking lot on the morning of September 10 when I received the message from her roommate that she was dead.” Ayres explains that Angie had taken a Xanax laced with fentanyl – enough fentanyl to kill several people.
Ayres warns, “They are mixing fentanyl in with Oxycontin, Xanax, Adderall, Percocet, Vicodin, and it’s being put into marijuana and gummy bears. There’s nothing safe anymore.” She urges folks to share her TikTok, saying, “Let them know that it’s not a matter of something will kill you. It is WHEN something will kill you. Please talk to your loved ones.”
As a former EMS member, Ayres has a good understanding of drug processes and how things work. She said fentanyl is “An equal opportunity killer – it doesn’t discriminate.” Ayres realizes that people don’t think it will “happen to my kid.” She has created a school program that she executed at the end of last year in Manchester schools. Ayres asked, “How many of you know somebody who had a problem or died from drugs?” She shared that almost every child held up their hand. “These kids were absorbing everything and asking questions that even adults weren’t asking,” Ayres said. She knew then that this was where she needed to be teaching and demonstrating the dangers of fentanyl. She also sets up once a month in a Shelter near the river and gives her fentanyl awareness program. She said, “If one person shows up, that’s one person I can teach.”
Ayres is partnering with the Manchester Lions Club. On October 11 at 6 p.m., they will hold the “Forever Locked In Our Hearts Fentanyl Poisoning & Overdose Awareness Memorial” at East Front Street, Manchester, Ohio, near the boat launch and Shelter. Ayres has families across the United States sending locks to honor lost loved ones. She invites the public to join in and place a lock for someone they love or a family that cannot be there. Locks can be purchased and customized on Amazon.
Follow Ayres’ TikTok at light_darkness_fentanyl and join her in bringing awareness and education to fentanyl poisoning. Bring light into the darkness and remember those lost to fentanyl poisoning and drug overdose.