By Brianna Wallen
On a cold December night, Laura Chomentowski, a retired social worker, gathered with two other bereaved mothers around her small dining room table in Hamden as Patricia Bode arrived in her Toyota Prius with her mobile studio.
They were there for an art project: decorating small fabric banners called recovery flags, each carrying a story of loss, resilience and recovery. Waving in the breeze, the flags stand as a reminder of a harsh reality: addiction remains one of the most misunderstood health conditions in America.
Chomentowski lost her son in 2020 to an accidental drug overdose. Creating recovery flags with the three other mothers, including Bode, each of whom had lost sons the same way, turned the evening into a space of shared understanding.
“There’s a lot of guilt we feel as moms that this happened to our kids,” Chomentowski said, “and you look around the table and see three other really great moms.”
Addressing stigma through art
For Bode, an associate professor of art at Southern Connecticut State University, changing the narrative around substance abuse became a personal mission after the accidental overdose death of her son, Ryan Moriarty, in 2018.
Through the Remember Love Recovery Project, Bode has used her loss to launch a healing movement that has stretched across Connecticut and beyond.
“Our mission is to destigmatize addiction disorder through art, education and human connection,” Bode said.
This story is supported by a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network. CT Community News is proud be to a member of the Solutions Journalism Network Student Media Challenge cohort for 2025-26.
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