(Pictured left) Tyler Jaynes, 33, of Brocton, died on March 17 at Mercy Hospital in Buffalo. (Pictured right) Brandon Orlando, 38, of Williamsville and formerly of Brocton, died on April 5.

Julie Zook remembers the helpless frustration. It had been building up inside Mercy Hospital of Buffalo where her son, Tyler Jaynes, remained on life support following an accidental drug overdose.

There seemed to be no end to the stream of people who wanted to see Jaynes, and the two-at-a-time visitation policy left Zook to battle with conflicting emotions.

“I would say to my husband, ‘I just want to sit alone with my son. … I’m not getting any time with him.’ People just kept coming and coming and coming,” she told The Post-Journal in an interview this week. “But I am glad that people came because they cared about him.”

Jaynes was 33 years old when he overdosed this past March. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, was a contributing factor.

Known as a “little brother” to many of his friends and others, there was no shortage of visitors to his hospital bed in Buffalo. That included Brandon Orlando who, while five years older, seemed to have lots in common with the younger Jaynes. Both attended Brocton Central School and each were known for their voracious work habits.

But the two also struggled together.

Orlando and Jaynes started drinking at early ages, their parents said, and both began taking drugs that escalated over time. Each had stints in rehab to kick their habits and along the way were supported by their families.

Zook said Jaynes’ overdose in March hit close to home to Orlando.

“Brandon had a really, really hard time seeing Tyler,” she said. “It was really rough on Brandon seeing Tyler on life support. Tyler was like Brandon’s little brother. He was everybody’s little brother. Most of the people who came were my oldest son’s friends because they all knew Tyler as their little brother. But Brandon took it really, really hard.”

Jaynes died at Mercy Hospital on March 17 with his family by his side.

Just 19 days later, Orlando died from a drug overdose in Williamsville. He was 38 years old.

Zook and Denise Kroah, Orlando’s mom, have now become advocates on behalf of RISE – Recovery, Inspiration, Support and Education. The support group is for people who have experienced a death due to addictions and is organized through Chautauqua Hospice & Palliative Care.

Both offered to share their sons’ stories to further raise awareness of the drug overdose epidemic and to humanize people battling addiction. Their messages come as local health officials say drug-related fatalities are increasing sharply with fentanyl playing a major role.

“Over half of the deaths this year have occurred within one day of another death,” Steve Kilburn with the county Mental Hygiene Department told members of the county Health Board this month.

“When we see the deaths we almost always are looking at fentanyl poisoning,” he said. “I think often, and maybe nearly always, it’s simply a matter of supply.”

‘HE WAS JUST QUIET’

Kroah recalled her son as a soft-spoken, simple man who loved history, reading and movies. He could be seen carrying several books at a time, from encyclopedias to the Bible.

He also was a man of few words.

“A lot of people thought he was stuck up because he didn’t get into drama,” Kroah said. “He was just quiet. Even as a child he was like that.”

She said her son was about 15 years old when he began drinking and later started using hard drugs.

“He got so drunk he was seeing yellow,” she recalled. “Another time he passed out on somebody’s driveway and had to be taken by the ambulance. I tried to get him help when he was 16 and they’re like, ‘Well, he’s got to want the help. He’s got to be the one.’ I got very angry. … I’m responsible for him until he’s 21 but I can’t get him any help? It just got progressively worse from there.”

But Orlando did seek help for his addiction problem. “He would be clean for a while, but it was either drugs or drinking,” Kroah said.

Things appeared stable this year. Orlando was over the moon when he learned his sister was getting married.

However, Kroah began to worry when her son didn’t respond to several messages. When Orlando failed to show up for work April 5, the family asked police in Williamsville to perform a welfare check and learned he had died.

A report indicated Orlando had taken cocaine that was laced with fentanyl.

Kroah isn’t shy admitting her feelings.

“I’m angry,” she said. “I’m angry at Brandon. I’m angry at whoever took my son’s life. I’m a Christian and, you know, that’s my biggest thing right now is I have no forgiveness for that person that took my son’s life. … We were just starting to be a family, like an actual family.”

After his death, Kroah learned her son had been writing in which he described how his struggle with addiction began. “I’m just not ready to hear that stuff,” she said.

‘WHATEVER HE DID, HE EXCELLED IN IT’

Zook said her son began drinking at 13 and soon started using marijuana. He was placed in Kids Escaping Drugs, a program in Buffalo to help underage kids struggling with alcohol and drug use.

Weeks after getting out of the nine-month program, the family moved to North Carolina.

“You know what they say: person, place and thing,” Zook said, “so we packed up and moved to North Carolina for a new environment.”

It wasn’t long, though, before Jaynes started smoking marijuana with a friend he made at his new school. He also started drinking again.

Despite the apparent setbacks in sobriety, Jaynes did flash his potential as evident by his workers mentality.

“He started working at age 15. He worked always,” Zook said. “He wasn’t out robbing and breaking into homes. He worked — he supported his habits fully. Whatever he did, he excelled in it. Whatever he was doing, he went beyond.

“When he did football they said, ‘Boy, he could have really went somewhere with football.’ While in North Carolina, and even though he was dabbling into marijuana in alcohol he was in the marching band. He played the tuba; he played all the instruments, and he excelled in everything he did.”

Last fall, Jaynes went to North Carolina and entered rehab. Orlando went as well.

Zook said her son wanted to get clean. When he left, he told his mom he was “doing good.”

However, just a week after he returned, Jaynes overdosed.

“They got a heartbeat back enough to where they transported him to the hospital,” Zook said. “He was on life support for six days but we had to take him off because he was brain dead; there was no brain activity whatsoever.”

PROMOTING A WORTHY CAUSE

At this year’s Chautauqua County Fair, Zook and Kroah provided outreach information about RISE and advocated for preventative measures such as Narcan use and fentanyl test strips.

RISE members meet from 7 to 9 p.m. the fourth Thursday of every month at the Hospice office on Fairmount Avenue in Lakewood.

Kroah has become a big proponent of RISE and other forms of support for families who have lost a loved one due to drugs and addiction.

“Seek help,” she said. “Get with the groups that have lost a child because it really, really does help. When I first lost Brandon, I went to a deep place. How am I supposed to go on as Brandon was my first born? I lost my husband two years prior. I just felt like my world was being pulled out from underneath me.”

She said the group has both helped her deal with the grief of losing a son and given her purpose to help others. She also has found herself talking to her son as if he’s in the room with her.

It’s because of him and who he was that she wanted to share his story.

“I don’t want to smear his name,” Kroah said. “I don’t want to make it sound like he’s a big drug addict because I had people say to me, ‘Oh, I figured that’s why Brandon passed away.’ … Yeah, he had a drug problem, but he was a good man. He worked his butt off for everything that he had.”

In addition to support groups offered by Chautauqua Hospice & Palliative Care, there are several countywide services and providers for individuals and families struggling with addiction. Details and contact information for those resources can be found at CombatAddictionCHQ.com

The Chautauqua County Crisis Hotline (1-800-724-0461) provides free confidential assistance, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is staffed by behavioral health professionals.