Mother reflects on dangers for young people after son’s fentanyl overdose

By Kirsten Stokes

What was meant to be a day of celebration for Kristin White turned into a moment no parent ever wants to experience.

On the morning of Dec. 30, 2023, in the bustle of preparing for a first birthday party for one of her other sons, White found her 17-year-old son, Ronnie, lifeless and without a pulse.

“I turn the corner of his room, and I look at him and I’m just like, ‘Something’s wrong,’ and when I touch him, I just know he’s gone,” White said.

Ronnie, who worked at the Self Expressions Cat Lounge, loved Dr Pepper and enjoyed being a big brother to his five siblings, died from a fentanyl overdose by taking Percocet 30s that were laced with the lethal drug.

Running on adrenaline, White called 911 and also a friend who was on her way to the party. She was hysterical and needed help getting her other kids out of the home.

“I call my best friend and I was like, I need you. She was already on her way here and turning the corner. I said ‘I need you get the kids out of the house, we just found Ronnie dead.’ From the time that I called her to tell her to call me when she gets here to the time where I called her and told her Ronnie was dead was six minutes,” White said.

In that six minutes, White said her life and everyone around it were changed.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, drug-related deaths claimed 107,941 American lives in 2022. In the past two years, seizures of fentanyl powder nearly doubled as the DEA seized 29,048 pounds in 2023.

With her work at the Youth Alliance and the relationship she has built with her kids, White said she never imagined that she and Ronnie’s father, Caleb, would have to face the drug-related death of one of their children.

“He was very open and just talked to me about everything,” she said. “He would talk to me and be like, ‘I’m overwhelmed’ and would ask if he could talk to be and I was like absolutely and so I was very much was his comfort.”

That’s why she is sharing her story, with the hopes she can help other families avoid a tragedy like hers.

“Be about your child’s business,” White said.

That’s something she said she wishes she did more frequently so her son would still be here for his 18th birthday on Nov. 22 with a homemade pumpkin pie in his hand.