Hope Charlton at 36 was unaware her children’s get-well notes were piling daily on her hospital nightstand as she lay unresponsive on life support after attempting to kill herself with an overdose of sleeping pills.

Brent Kennard, 35, was incarcerated 13 times and spent a total of nearly seven years behind bars “all due to my drug addiction.”

Tawny Saeler, 35, used heroin “every day for 16 years,” was jailed 12 times and, like Charlton, wanted to die “because everything I had used to cover up my pain was not covering anything up anymore,” she said.

The three Butler residents will speak publicly about their descent into addiction and ascent to sobriety at a Butler County Community College event in downtown Butler that recognizes national Recovery Month and whose attendance has increased fivefold since 2019, a BC3 administrator said.

BC3’s Stories of Hope is free and open to the public and will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, at Butler Art Center, 344 S. Main St. Speakers intend to inspire others in substance-use recovery during the event that debuted in 2019.

Charlton, now 38, has not used controlled substances for two years, Kennard for three and a half years and Saeler for seven years.

Stories of Hope is among themed Hope Night events for those in substance-use recovery, according to Ken Clowes, BC3’s community initiatives center assistant­­. It drew 20 guests to downtown Butler in 2019 and 90 in 2023, according to Clowes, who expects more than 100 on Thursday, Sept. 19.

“Stories of Hope is my favorite Hope Night, specifically because we get to hear from community members who share their stories about overcoming addition,” Clowes said.

Charlton’s husband was diagnosed with cancer and her father had had his legs amputated in 2016.

She began to share with her husband and father their prescribed painkillers, and with her husband, cocaine. Her husband and father died within nine months of each another, and in September 2022 Charlton swallowed two bottles of sleeping pills.

“I was ready,” she said. “I was just done. I didn’t want to be sick any longer from the drugs.”

Charlton spent every day for a week on life support.

“My kids came in to see me,” Charlton said. “They wrote me letters that said they hoped that I did not die, and that they loved me and that they had been there to see me, because I didn’t know.

“That was the turning point.”

She remained sober after learning that her 21-year-old sister, Bethanylynn Shaw, was murdered in South Carolina in December by whom police say was Shaw’s longtime boyfriend.

“Normally an addict would say, ‘I just want to get high. The heck with it. I just want to get high,’” Charlton said. “For the first time in my life, I went into my car to pray to God and say thank you that I am not using. Because if I was, I would have never gone to South Carolina for the funeral. I would have never left Butler. I got to go be with my family during that time.”

Clowes said to get through a traumatic event without using was noteworthy.

“Whenever I ask those in recovery who have relapsed, ‘How many of you did so over an emotional response to a life event?’ everyone raises their hand. No one doesn’t raise their hand.

“So for anybody, especially in recovery, to get through something like that maintaining their sobriety is unbelievable. Just amazing.”

BC3’s Stories of Hope will inspire guests in substance-use recovery to continue their journey, Clowes said.

“They may gain insight into how other people have done it,” Clowes said. “I want them to leave there knowing they are not alone in the community. I want them to leave feeling a little more connected to the community.”

“I think all of us felt for so long that we were alone,” Saeler said. “That nobody understands. But having someone who does will open your eyes.”

“There is a better way,” Kennard said. “We do not have to live in the madness of addiction or jail every day.”

Charlton said she will tell others in recovery at Butler Art Center that they can overcome setbacks without the use of controlled substances.

“Things are going to happen,” Charlton said. “Just because you get clean doesn’t mean it is going to be all rainbows. But you don’t have to use. No matter what.”

The fourth and featured speaker at BC3’s Stories of Hope is scheduled to be Dr. Joey Pagano. The author, licensed social worker and therapist has been in long-term recovery and is executive director of the Greene Treatment Center in Carmichaels, Greene County.

At Pagano’s lowest point in addiction, he wanted to end his life after robbing a gasoline station to purchase controlled substances. He chose instead to walk into a police station to seek help. That decision, according to his memoir, would change his life.

Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.