By Pam Wright
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Jewelya Suzanne Hanov died of a fentanyl overdose July 11, 2024, just the day after her 26th birthday.
Since her death, her father has been immobilized by grief.
“I can’t look at the pictures,” said Chatham resident Michael Hanov, gesturing toward family photographs hanging on the wall while averting his eyes. “I can’t open her bedroom door.
“I have a hole in my heart,” he continued. “When I go to her grave, I bawl my eyes out. I’ve got to go see my daughter at a cemetery…that’s where I have to talk to my daughter because of fentanyl.”
According to a coroner’s report, Jewelya died in the basement of a Park Avenue residence in Chatham. She was found to have 20 milligrams of fentanyl in her system, along with cocaine, methamphetamine and clonazepam. A blood level of 3 mg. of fentanyl is considered fatal.
The day before she died, Hanov said his daughter overdosed on fentanyl behind Canadian Tire. Jewelya was resuscitated with Narcan and taken to Chatham-Kent Health Alliance. Shortly before midnight, she was released, somehow making her way to her final destination.
Hanov is despondent that he didn’t get a chance to connect with his daughter on her last day on earth, wishing he would have known she was hospitalized.
However, he acknowledged his relationship with his daughter was strained in the seven weeks before her death following an altercation between the two.
The details around her death are murky, he added, and he knows he will never know what really happened.
“Before midnight, the hospital let her go,” Hanov said. ” I didn’t know that my baby girl was at the hospital and had OD’d. I wish I would have known.”
Although Jewelya struggled with substance abuse since she was a young teen, her father said she was “so much more” than the drugs. In the last two years of her life, she completed the two-year Community Justice Services course online through Algonquin College. Studying addictions was part of the course.
“Jewel wasn’t doing drugs all the time,” Hanov explained. ” She got with the wrong people and fell back. I couldn’t save her.”
Born in Windsor, Jewelya grew up with her mother and stepfather in Cedar Springs. However, she lived with her father for the seven years prior to her death, successfully working in customer service with a telecommunications company.
Hanov said holding his newborn daughter in his arms when she was born was the “best moment of my life,” adding that he rocked her in a chair for the first two hours.
“I told her, that was the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said.
Sadly, Jewelya’s death is not an anomaly and is part of the what’s being called a national crisis. Since 2016, when opioid deaths started being recorded, close to 50,000 Canadians have died from opioid overdose.
According to Chatham-Kent Public Health’s most recent Opioid Surveillance Report, there were 23 confirmed/probable local opioid poisoning deaths in the period from January to November 2024. The report states the majority of the deaths were males between 25 to 44, with fentanyl directly contributing to all deaths.
Provincially, there were 2,087 in the same time frame, with one in five of the opioid deaths occurring in the homeless population.
Current opioid toxicity deaths in Ontario, according to statistics from the Office of the Chief Coroner, indicated there were 220 suspected drug-related deaths reported in March 2025, and 653 suspected opioid related deaths in the three months prior.
Hanov, in recovery from addiction for many years himself, has first-hand experience with the danger and wants others to know they are not alone. Along with private counselling, he’s taking part in a new grief program for people who have a child or loved one experiencing fentanyl addiction or addiction to other substances.
Part of Reach Out Chatham-Kent (R.O.C.K.) Mission’s outreach, the program is called Holding Hope. Created by Canadian non-profit Moms Stop the Harm and facilitated by those with lived experience, the group provides a safe space for support, connection and information.
R.O.C.K. Missions executive director Renee Geniole said Holding Hope is a welcome addition and will be held bi-weekly at 39 Richmond St. in Chatham.
“A lot of family members reach out to us,” Geniole said. “We recognize there is a grief to having a family member who is living the life. It’s nice to be able to share with people who say ‘I totally get it.’ To be able to share that grief sometimes helps.
“There’s a shame and stigma associated with drug use,” she said, noting there’s an open invitation to community members to come and check it out.
Hanov hopes family and friends impacted by the substance use of a loved one will take advantage of the new group and he’s willing to help.
“If there’s anybody out there who has lost a child or family member or loved one, feel free to contact me,” he said.
“I didn’t want to be wrapped up in this, God help me. This is the worst thing that ever happened in my life.”
As for opening the door into Jewelya’s room, Hanov isn’t sure when that will happen.
“I can’t go in the room,” he said. “I just can’t…it’s just the way she left it.”
For those interested in finding out more, contact [email protected] online or [email protected].
