09/03/2026
Monday evening, our community gathered at the Courthouse Gazebo for International Overdose Awareness Day — to remember the neighbors we’ve lost, and to remind each other that nobody here grieves alone.
We opened with one idea and it held all night. The people we’ve lost are SO much more than how they died.
What we heard:
💜 Lori Ashenfelder bravely told us about her son. Watching him disappear and return and disappear again… doing it in near-total isolation. How almost no one in her circle understood substance use disorder. How stigma around it teaches us to hide the truth. Lori’s response to that is flat and unhedged: the stigma is wrong.
Lori and Dean Cathey founded DJ’s Wish – Freedom From Fentanyl.
💜 Natasha Brook Osteen and Dominic Osteen stood up together — Natasha spoke about losing her loving dad, and Dominic spoke about getting his mother back when she got sober. Grief and hope, side by side, in the same family.
đź’ś Lisa Atkins Palumbo told us about her mother, and about what gets passed down through a family when depression takes hold and goes unspoken.
💜 Roux Delmont Mellisa - shared what it’s like to overdose, be revived, and keep living. She is here today and with us. That matters powerfully.
💜 Emily T. Lowery told us about her niece Taylor — about who Taylor was. Her personality. Her love for animals. Growing up alongside Tyler. The beautiful woman and loving mother behind the statistic.
💜 Stephanie of Celebrate Recovery reminded us that recovery happens in community — that lived experience and a safe place to land can carry someone a long way. That no one has to suffer alone and that faith is a powerful healer.
đź’ś Joseph of Behavioral Health Group came to walk us through the practical things that save lives: harm reduction, access to treatment, meeting people where they are. He was also reminded by the other speakers by subtance-related tragedies in his own family - and was called, spur of the moment, to speak on that as well.
đź’ś And Kevin Muehlesisen played us in, played us through, and played us out. His music gave everyone room to feel what they needed to feel.
💜 Recovery takes many forms. Sometimes it’s through shared experience. Other times it’s through public support that are offered by available services. But so often, faith and places of worship have the greatest impact. Preacher Kyle Reese from Faith Missionary Baptist Church was there to help offer that comfort and guidance. His prayer held those and their loved ones the warmth and consolation they needed.
We distributed hygeine kits, pocket hugs, resources and Narcan.
Then we lit the luminaries. People wrote names on those bags — messages to their sons, their daughters, their friends... If you walked past that wall and read them, you know.
And when we invited folks to call a name aloud – or quitely to themselves, they did.
One by one by one...
A whisper here. A name half-caught on the other side of the gazebo. One from somewhere behind us, a voice that broke and kept going anyway. Then another, and another, until everyone in attendance had spoken.
Some names came out clear. Some barely made it past a murmur. Some took a long moment to arrive. We waited for every one of them...
Thank you to our partners for standing with us: Health Group, Ridge Health, CARE Coalition- Transylvania, Love and Respect Recovery Community Center, Women for Women Giving Circle, SAFE Inc. of Transylvania County, Pisgah Health Foundation, Chapel of the Open Hearth, Recovery, and DJ’s Wish. And thanks to Baker, who spent the evening behind a camera and gave us these photographs.
And thanks to the The Transylvania Times and Beagle for helping get the word out.
This wasn’t The Haven’s event. It was ours.
If Monday stirred something up for you, please reach out — to us, to any organization above, or to someone who loves you. (828) 877-2040.
