She moved to save her son from drugs. Fentanyl killed him in Texas
DALLAS -- “Please, God, forgive me for the times I was judgmental about someone who used drugs. Forgive me for thinking badly about their families.
“I get it now. This can happen to anyone.”
Dreika Harris has leaned on prayer since fentanyl killed her 20-year-old son, Dontrell, in their Frisco, Texas, apartment almost two years ago.
She prays for faith to stitch her heart back together. Wisdom to lead her younger son through his big brother’s death. Forgiveness for judging others.
“I’d hear about overdoses and think, ‘They’re just an addict,’” Dreika said. “When you’re actually wearing those shoes, sitting in that seat, your outlook is very different.”
A poster-sized photo of a beaming Dontrell in red cap and gown greets visitors just inside Dreika’s second-floor apartment. His 2019 high school diploma, draped with his red and gold mortarboard tassel, sits on a shelf filled with family photos.
“We loved this kid so much,” Dreika murmured, her voice trailing off. “He was so loved. He was so loved.”
Years earlier, that devotion spurred Dreika to pack 6-year-old Dontrell and all their belongings into her car and move more than 300 miles from the only home she had ever known.
Dreika’s family roots run deep in Monroe, La., but she was determined her son wouldn’t grow up in the state’s poorest city, where almost a third of the residents lived below the poverty line.
She was 24 and a single parent with almost no money in her wallet when she left. “There wasn’t much good in Monroe,” she recalled. “I didn’t want my son on the street corner selling drugs or on drugs.”
“I wanted him to see something different.”
She chose North Texas for its wealth of jobs and good schools. With no family or friends in the Dallas area, Dreika...