PERRY, Ga. — Losing a loved one is never easy, but a Perry mom says losing your child to a drug overdose feels like a wound that may never heal.
Since reporting on the toll of the fentanyl epidemic in Houston County and across Central Georgia, families are reaching out to 13WMAZ to bring awareness to their grief of losing loved ones to the contact drug.
The nationwide epidemic not only kills innocent people, but the after-effects of their overdose deaths hold their loved ones back from finding peace.
When Gina Suckow lost her son in 2021, she says she shut down and went quiet.
"Not a lot of people know I have a son who died," she said at his grave.
Christopher Hunter Ernst was his momma's boy. Their relationship is something Suckow has cherished since the day he was born.
"If it can happen to him, it can happen to other kids like him," Suckow said.
Christopher grew up in Perry. His mom said he went to Perdue Primary and Elementary, Mossy Creek Middle School and Perry High School.
When he graduated in 2019, he had aspirations to join the Air Force, his mom said.
"That was his goal," Suckow said.
Christopher's youngest sister, Adelynn Ernst, grew up in the room across from her brother.
She remembers him as a goof-off who made his whole family laugh and smile.
"He knew he'd get the best reaction out of me, so, I'd be laughing where I couldn't breathe," she said. "I'd be like crying laughing, turning red. He was just hilarious."
His mom thinks about him every day.
"He was a real shy guy," Suckow said. "He had the biggest heart. Just the sweetest kid you would've ever met."
Suckow said she's kept in touch with his teachers on social media who message her regularly to let her know how much they loved him, too.
When he started high school, his mom said, is when she started noticing changes in his behavior.
Suckow thinks when Christopher started hanging out with a different crowd, he began to experiment with drugs.
"He was not a good liar," she said. "He got caught with pot when he was 16, and marijuana. I was like, 'What are you doing?' We talked about it because we were a drug-free home."
As a sixth-grade teacher at Fagin Mill, she says she knows how kids talk about substances.
"It's just a plant, there's nothing wrong with it," she said. "That may be true to some degree, but there are certain people who have that jean who, you know, it's that addictive gene."
That's when she knew he was in trouble.
Suckow thinks her son had that gene and put him into rehab when he was 18.
"He would ask for help," she said. "But then, he'd change his mind and try to convince me he was ok. And I listened. But man, I wish I didn't. I really wish I didn't."
She has a warning for others considering taking any substances: "You might think it's okay to experience and you may take that chance, but you could be that one that can't let go of it."
In June of 2021, Suckow said she remembered her son asking for help getting over his addiction.
That's when she took him to the hospital, but to her disappointment, the doctors lacked an empathetic approach.
"[The doctor] just came in and talked to him about what he was doing and the risks," she said. "All he said was, 'You gotta stop what you're doing or you're going to die.'"
She said she had been telling her son about the risks of what he was doing, but says "it's easier said than done" for addicts to sober up immediately.
"He also prescribed us some Narcan in case he ever overdosed," she said.
Now, she wishes there was a way to find resources to prevent him from dying young.
"If they could give him at least a 72-hour hold like they do to the people who threaten to harm themselves, the loved ones time to figure out what to do next or where they can go because we didn't know where to take him," she said. "We couldn't take him back to where he'd come from because it was so expensive."
Six days later, on June 10, 2021, Christopher was found dead in his bedroom by his stepdad and mom around 4 p.m.
"I knew it was an accident because we'd made plans to have a cookout that night... he was going to call an office for a job in the morning," his mom said.
Suckow said she tried to resuscitate her son, but she knew it was already too late.
"He slept during the day and is up all night, so he had to have taken whatever drug it was in the morning," she said.
When first-responders arrived, Suckow said, they spent hours in his bedroom cleaning up to ensure there were no traces of fentanyl.
She says she wants to thank them and the officers at Perry Police Department for being caring and compassionate to her and the family during the most painful day of her life.
The Houston County District Attorney's Office says they're still investigating Christopher's death.
She hasn't walked into his bedroom in two years, she said, but, on Thursday, she stepped foot in it for the first time since that "horrible day."
"Addicts are not anything else but human," she said. "You have a sickness and you're fighting it."
Suckow wants others to learn from her and her family's experience.
"That's where I have the guilt, like, 'What should I have done?'" she said.
Suckow attributes the Rescue Mission of Middle Georgia for helping her through her grief and suggests anyone else struggling should reach out for help.
"If there's any mom's out there that ask that question or even think to ask that question it's just-- whatever you can."
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you can call the substance abuse and mental health services hotline at 1-800-662-4357.