Taylor Miller's family continues her mission to fight opioids, spread hope

Keith and Maria Miller
·8 min read
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We were lucky to have Taylor in our lives for 27 years. We fought tirelessly for eight years to make sure that she stayed alive and was given a chance to achieve her life's goals. On April 11, 2021 our 27-year-old daughter, Taylor Nicole Miller, was taken from our lives after ingesting drugs unknowingly laced with fentanyl; enough fentanyl to kill six people instantaneously. In a matter of seconds, the fight for survival and normalcy had ended for Taylor, but the struggle would continue for us. We all made good and bad decisions along our journey with Taylor; there is no handbook, no prescribed path, no virtual map to redirect our course when obstacles are approaching — just a mom and dad doing what they can to help their little girl.

Mental health issues undetected

The path that led us here could not have been foreseen in Taylor's formative years. She was always happy, healthy, social, and smart. She performed well academically in high school and participated in sports. Later she would divulge that she had been "cutting" on and off since seventh grade — a result of undetected and undiagnosed anxiety. She worked various part-time jobs since the age of 15 and kept a consistent circle of friends; certainly nothing to portend what was to come our way in the near future. We created a timeline of events from the first known hint of a mental health concern until her death and, when we step back now and look at the litany of obstacles she faced in her life, we're amazed by her strength and resiliency in facing them and, at least temporarily, fending off her demons.

Taylor graduated in the top 10% of her class from high school in 2012 and was accepted into a local college's five-year physician assistant program. She always desired to help people and animals (especially cats and opossums) and this seemed like the perfect scenario for her. By the spring of 2013, Taylor began to experience depression, sought help from a psychiatrist and was prescribed medication for her symptoms. Toward the end of her freshman year at Gannon University, Taylor experienced a mental health crisis, and spent a few days in a behavioral health program at a local hospital. It was during this period in time that she met a person she thought was a friend. Taylor's "friend" introduced her to heroin. This was the true turning point in Taylor's world, a point from which she would never truly escape.

More:Erie County's drug deaths jump in 2021: See the troubling trend

The turmoil opioids unleash

To sum up Taylor's next few years, we would call it turbulent. Between 2013 and 2017 Taylor checked in to seven (six different) drug addiction rehabilitation facilities in Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, and New Hampshire. These facilities detoxed her body from the drugs (typically heroin), adjusted medications to deal with her various mental health diagnoses, but never could remove the strong desire motivated by opioid addiction. During this turmoil she managed to attend college, move to Boston, get engaged, adopt a cat, vacation with family, attend NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meetings, attend counseling sessions, introduce and initiate HA (Heroin Anonymous) meetings in Erie, and develop a Facebook page, HOPE (Heroin Overdose Prevention in Erie), to raise awareness to the growing problem in her community.

More:Editorial: As drug deaths surge, Pennsylvania must renew its heroin, opioid overdose fight

Taylor's HOPE Facebook page helped those battling addiction

The HOPE Facebook page that Taylor started in January of 2014 was, and remains, a testament to the passion that Taylor held for helping others that were experiencing the same trauma and relentless cycles she faced. This social media platform is raising awareness in the community, educating families dealing with addiction, and providing resources and a compassionate ear for thousands of people on the front lines of the opioid crisis. Taylor participated in many drug awareness events in the area and was not afraid to speak openly and candidly about the opioid crisis and how it had been affecting her quality of life. After her death, we found out that, through her HOPE page, she spoke to and assisted hundreds of addicts in finding their way to recovery, sometimes sharing her experiences, sometimes offering advice, sometimes providing help and resources, and sometimes visiting them in detox facilities.

In 2017 Taylor was placed on a prescription of Suboxone, a drug designed to block opioid receptors in the brain and reduce cravings. She regularly attended a local outpatient treatment program that helped her to get and keep her life on track. In 2019, Taylor was accepted into the nursing program at Penn State Behrend and she was excited and ready for the challenge this program would surely bring. She worked hard, studied relentlessly, made friends, maintained her grades, and was progressing well through the program. In the spring of 2021, we noticed a shift in Taylor.

Passion, joy, wonder stolen by opioids

Over the course of a few weeks she spent more time in her room, withdrew from her family, and even spaced herself away from her beloved cat, Moo Cow, whom she adopted off the streets of Boston. We were, of course, increasingly concerned and reached out to her care providers for help in getting her back on track. Taylor recognized that she needed help, but adamantly denied any drug use, and insisted that she finish out the semester at Penn State and seek help in the summer. We found out soon after her death on April 11, 2021, that Taylor had been using again. During the evening of April 10th, Taylor had planned a grocery shopping trip with her family, talked about her excitement for that summer's vacation, and laid out her upcoming study schedule. In the early morning hours of that night, we found her dead.

The Guardian:‘Completely devastating’: US passes 1m overdose deaths since records began

As we mentioned earlier, we look back and see what we couldn't have seen, know what we couldn't have known, and do what we couldn't have done. The isolation and stress that accompanied the pandemic certainly worked against Taylor's (and millions of others with mental health issues) strides toward normalization. How much? We'll probably never know. Her addiction did not define who she was or who she wanted to be. She strived for and yearned for a type of normalcy that would allow her to love and be loved; she pursued her life's passion in the medical field, and she experienced the wonderment and joy that life can offer. That love, that joy, that passion, that wonderment, that everything; all were taken from her by opioids and the powerful addiction and destruction they generate.

Taylor loved to learn and to educate. She was a student and teacher of many things. Her life taught us parents love unconditionally, parents' love never dies, and parents' love can bring unimaginable pain. We continue to seek closure through the legal system while we, along with Taylor's siblings Collin and Mikaela push forward honoring Taylor's life and legacy through educating ourselves and others, through sharing her story with anyone who will listen, and through always striving to remove the stigma that surrounds drug use and mental health. We are in the midst of starting a nonprofit, Taylor's HOPE, with our mission to raise awareness, erase stigmas that vilify mental health and substance use disorder, educate the community, and advocate for those struggling. Taylor's mission of hope is now ours.

Keith and Maria Miller are the parents of Taylor Miller, a community leader and advocate for those in recovery who died of a fentanyl overdose on April 11, 2021, at her Fairview home. She was 27.

Need help? Here are some resources the Keith and Maria Miller recommend for those contending with mental health issues, addiction and grief:

National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day will be observed on Aug. 21, 2022. Here are some facts on the nation's fentanyl crisis from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration:

"According to the CDC, 107,375 people in the United States died of drug overdoses and drug poisonings in the 12-month period ending in January 2022. A staggering 67% of those deaths involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Some of these deaths were attributed to fentanyl mixed with other illicit drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin, with many users unaware they were actually taking fentanyl. Only two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially lethal dose; it's particularly dangerous for someone who does not have a tolerance to opioids."

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Taylor Miller's family continues her mission to fight opioids, spread hope