VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Somewhere in the back of Telisa Randle’s mind, she always knew Thursday was a day she prayed would never come... but still braced for.
"He was a survivor," Randle said to the gathered friends and family at Altmeyer Funeral Home.
In the pews of the funeral home chapel off Rouse Drive, Randle said goodbye to her oldest brother, Lavair Randle. His death was unexpected, but something she always knew she'd have to be prepared for.
“It’s hard on the family, because you go through a stereotype. They don’t really give up but they distance themselves, they wait for that to happen. That’s what hurts more than anything, when you feel like you’re waiting for that day to happen,"
According to Telisa, Lavair died of a fentanyl overdose in Virginia Beach this August. It put a closure to a decades-long battle with addiction stemming from their childhood days living in Chicago.
“It did feel like a battle that cannot be won, I started feeling he has to age out of this, maybe get to his 70’s, age out of it," she said.
In late August, the Virginia Beach Police Department issued an alert and warning of three overdose deaths over the span of one weekend. At the time, they issued the warning because they believed narcotics may have been mixed with something "stronger."
According to VBPD, the three overdose deaths in one weekend brought the city's total overdose death count to eight for August alone.
From here, Randle says her and her family will continue to honor her brother's life every year as an example to never forget the impact addiction can have on someone's life.
"Make sure he’s gone but not forgotten. And show the next generation this could really happen if you don’t take your life decisions seriously, sometimes you just don’t see things coming,"
Data from the Virginia Department of Health shows the City of Virginia Beach recorded 114 total overdose deaths as recently as 2021. Virginia as a state recorded more than 2,500 overdose deaths in 2021.