SUDBURY - While still in the early planning stages, Sudbury’s Crosses for Change will become a permanent memorial to those lost to drug overdose or poisoning.
What began as one cross for Myles Keaney in 2020 has grown to more than 267 and there is no room for more. Each year since 2021, Public Health Sudbury and Districts has reported an average of 130 deaths due to opioid poisoning.
But while the design of the project is still up in the air, a location has been selected. The new memorial, in whatever form it takes, will be located in the city’s Carleton Park, located at the corner of Paris Street and Cedar Street in downtown Sudbury.
At the announcement of the plan in the lobby of Tom Davies Square on Feb. 20, Keaney’s mother, Denise Sandul, spoke of her son, and the memorial project.
Sandul said she first put up a cross for her son, who died of overdose in front of the fire station on Paris Street near the Bridge of Nations.
She then put out the call on social media for anyone else who was feeling like the loss of their loved one to opioid addiction was “going unnoticed.”
Keaney’s cross was quickly joined by others, and soon there were so many, the site had to move to its current location at Paris Street and Brady Street.
Sandul said that grief can be a “very isolating experience,” and she wanted people to have collective support.
“My son's mental health led him to addiction; he used drugs to quiet the voices in his head, when psychiatric meds left him feeling nothing. He was hospitalized many times, however, never long enough for him to get fully well.”
Sandul said Myles agreed to go to treatment twice before his death, but he was denied because of his dual diagnosis.
“That's my story. But every one of those crosses have a story of their own: there are similarities. There's differences, but all of these people mattered,” she said.
In fact, she still has requests for new crosses coming in, but there is no more room at the current location.
Not just that, but the “once-white crosses are fading and deteriorating,” said Sandul.
“The intention was never meant for them to be a permanent memorial,” she said. “Memorials at their core are symbols of remembrance, they are physical representations of significant events, people or periods in history. Memorials serve as anchors in our collective memory, preventing important historical moments from fading away.”
And that means it’s time to move forward with a permanent monument, she said.
“My hope is that our monument will foster collective remembrance, unite people in shared grief, and educate future generations with education and awareness.”
She told Sudbury.com she hopes it will be a “significant piece of art,” and that when you get close, that will be the moment the community “can visualize how many people were lost during this period of history, the significance of it, and so we don’t let this happen again.
Sandul said the city has been very supportive of the plan to make the memorial permanent, and highly visible, in whatever form it takes.
“I am grateful to the city for working with me to create a permanent space where these stories will continue to be seen, heard, and never forgotten."
More information about the design of the memorial, and the transition from the current location at Paris and Brady, will be announced at a later date.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com, covering vulnerable and marginalized populations, as well as housing issues and the justice system.