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Note: we are republishing this story, which originally made the news in August 2016.
Imagine stepping into your local Starbucks for your daily caffeine fix, only to be met with a horrifying scene. This nightmare became a reality for a Starbucks employee who found 16-year-old Gwynevere Staddon unresponsive in the bathroom. What was beside her? A small amount of drugs and paraphernalia—grim tokens of a young life cut tragically short.
The Port Moody police were called to the scene, but emergency responders couldn’t revive the teen. Her mother, Veronica, believes her daughter succumbed to a fentanyl overdose, even though the official cause of death is yet to be determined. Veronica’s anguish is palpable: “My best friend, my daughter, my sweetheart baby … I will never stop missing you. My heart won’t stop breaking,” she shared on Facebook.
Gwynevere’s struggle with substance abuse wasn’t a secret. She had confided in her mother that she’d been clean for three weeks. “I’ve quit, so I’m OK now, Mom,” she had reassured Veronica. But addiction is a cruel master, and one last lapse proved fatal. “The one more time was the very last time,” Veronica lamented.
Veronica had desperately tried to get her daughter into rehab. But the public rehab clinics were swamped, and the private clinics demanded a whopping $50,000—an amount way beyond reach for most people. “If I don’t have $50,000 available, then they are not something I can use as a resource,” she explained to CBC.
The tragedy is not just the loss of a young life but also the lost potential. “The whole world is missing out on a born entertainer,” Veronica noted. “Either that, or a future politician.”
Veronica’s grief has transformed into a call for action. She wants to see more effective measures to get drug dealers off the streets and better rehabilitation options for those in need. A mother’s plea, echoing through the corridors of heartbreak, begs for attention and change.
The grim reality of drug addiction claims lives every day, but stories like Gwynevere’s add a face and a heartbreakingly short life story to the statistics. It’s a call to look deeper, to understand more fully, and to act more decisively. In memory of Gwynevere Staddon, let’s push for a world where the grip of addiction can be loosened, where there are fewer ‘one last times’ that turn into ‘the very last time.’
Sources: CBC, Global News
