Thousands of purple flags a blight on downtown Marlborough

MARLBOROUGH, Mass. — Two-thousand patches of purple -- each one representing the name of a drug overdose victim in Massachusetts this past year -- have been laid out in Marlborough.

There may be beauty in their blankness, but something bleak all the same.

"It can happen to anybody," Kathy Leonard explains.

For her, laying out the purple flags is a late-summer tradition. But it's not one she would have chosen.

Five years ago, she lost her son Jonathan to a heroin overdose.

"He was a smart kid," Leonard said. "He was a member of the national honor society. He was an accomplished musician, athlete, artist."

In symmetrical fashion, the flags align as an orderly tribute to lives that took unexpected twists and then ended too soon.

"The estimate in 2017 was 2,050. The estimate in 2018 was 2,032. So we're still hovering close to the same amounts," Leonard said. "[It's] kind of discouraging given how long this has been going on, isn't it? It is and the fact is the numbers would be a lot higher if it weren't for naloxone -- Narcan."

Cheryl Juaire's son died of an overdose eight years ago.

"If you've lost a child to addiction or anything else, it's the most horrific pain you can ever endure," she said.

She now runs a nationwide grief support group based in Marlborough and worries the field of flags is not shrinking.

"Nothing's changing. Not a thing is changing," she said. "There are people dying on the street corners everywhere."

There is a slight reduction in the number of flags in this year's display compared to last, but Kathy Leonard says the number is hardly anything to cheer about.

"Every year when we do this, it still breaks my heart," she said. "Because we still have way too many flags."

And so for another year, they are left to close out summer with the color of bruises. The kind of stain you can't wash away.

Cox Media Group