HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Cheyenne Goodman is preparing sunflowers for a graduation her daughter will never attend.
Reagan Goodman died two years ago from fentanyl poisoning at just 16 years old — at the end of her sophomore year at Hendersonville High School. Friday, she would have walked across the stage with her classmates.
"I really wanted to make sure we had some way of honoring Reagan at graduation," Cheyenne said. "I thought that the sunflowers would be a nice representation of her."
Cheyenne's memories of her daughter live in the same place she cuts stems and ties black ribbons with Reagan's name for all of Reagan's friends to remember her.
"She used to walk just through our backyard and go over to the lake," Cheyenne said. "We were out here a lot. Her dad built the playhouse over here for her tenth birthday."
Cheyenne said she wants the gesture to be meaningful without taking attention away from the students who are graduating.
"I just wanted to have like a subtle reminder of her there, not to overshadow any of the students that are graduating," Cheyenne said.
The sunflowers will be at graduation Friday, where Reagan should have stood.
"My daughter trusted the wrong person and took something they had given her, and it cost her her life," Cheyenne said.
Cheyenne hopes the tribute serves as a reminder that no other family has to learn her story this way. Sunday, she will stand near a billboard of her daughter to help bring awareness.
Watch the full story above, and if Reagan's story moves you or you have a story about how fentanyl has touched your family or community, we want to hear from you. Reach out directly to reporter Kim Rafferty at kim.rafferty@NewsChannel5.com — your story could help save another family from the same heartbreak.
In this article, we used artificial intelligence to help us convert a video news report originally written by Kim Rafferty. When using this tool, both Kim and the NewsChannel 5 editorial team verified all the facts in the article to make sure it is fair and accurate before we published it. We care about your trust in us and where you get your news, and using this tool allows us to convert our news coverage into different formats so we can quickly reach you where you like to consume information. It also lets our journalists spend more time looking into your story ideas, listening to you and digging into the stories that matter.
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