Donna Novick's life changed forever one afternoon this past November, when she walked into her Norwich home and found her only son dead on her couch. The 32-year-old had overdosed on fentanyl and cocaine, an autopsy found.

The months since have been filled with anguish and anger, said Novick, but amid her grief she found solace in one thing: the woman who answered her frantic 911 call and the officers who responded to her house were kind to her.

"These officers did not judge us for what happened. They treated me and my family with respect, compassion, for what we were going through," Novick said in a post she wrote on a Facebook group, where she hoped to publicly recognize the officers.

"Officers these days are getting so much bad grief and people need to know that there are good officers out there," Novick said. "They made this whole horrible incident a little bit easier for me."

Novick had just returned home from her daughter's house with her 10-year-old granddaughter when she walked into her living room and saw her son, Gary Hoyt, lying on the couch.

Her granddaughter, Hoyt's niece, thought her uncle was sleeping. But Novick could tell he was gone.

"I went over to him and I shook him and called out his name, but he was cold and blue," Novick said. "I checked and he had no pulse, I knew there was no resuscitating him."

Novick brought her granddaughter into a bedroom and told her what was going to happen, and then called 911. The dispatcher then did the same thing for her.

"The woman who was on the other end of the phone walked me through what was going to happen and stayed on the phone with me until police arrived," Novick said. "She was amazing; I don't even have the words to describe how wonderful she was."

Officer Zachary Desmond and Detective Dennis Bialowas, both members of the Norwich Police Department for eight years, were the first to arrive on the scene.

At first, Novick said she was filled with anger.

"I was angry at him for doing this, for not being strong enough. I was angry at him for making me do this," Novick said. "He's supposed to bury me, I'm not supposed to bury him."

The distraught mother said her instinct was to go in and yell at her son for what he did. Desmond gently stopped her and told her that everything was going to be OK, she said.

As Desmond spoke with paramedics, Novick said Detective Bialowas asked her what happened and helped calm her down. They were polite and kept her away from the living room, where her son's body was lying.

"It was just soothing to know that they weren't judging me, they were so kind," Novick said.

"We come into people's lives at their absolute lowest and to be able to leave that person better than we found them is our main goal," said Desmond, who added that, unfortunately, helping family members navigate a fatal overdose is something they do "on a day-to-day basis."

In a case like this, Desmond said they try their best to help family members understand what's happening. "Sometimes it's a person's first time losing a family member and to have that reassurance from a person who has seen it and can help guide them through the series of events can give them a bit of ease," he said.

The officer said they helped make Novick more comfortable by explaining the events that were going to take place, asking about her support system and comforting her in her grief.

As they waited for the medical examiner, Novick said she asked if she could go to her daughter's home while the body was removed. The officers encouraged her to do so.

Before she left, she asked the officers if they could go through her son's dresser and car. "I told them, 'If there's anything here, could you please take it?' I didn't want the grandkids to get ahold of it."

Officers searched both spots and no drugs were found, Desmond said.

About 8:20 p.m., Novick called the police department and spoke with the same dispatcher who had helped her earlier that night. She told Novick the scene had been cleared and she could go home.

The Day was not able to confirm the dispatcher's name.

When Novick returned to her home, she found handwritten notes from Desmond and the medical examiner with their contact information.

"We don't do that on every call but there are times you realize and feel that you need to," Desmond said. "We left a note saying, 'We are here, regardless if this night is over, you can always dial the police department and we will always come.'"

Novick said the notes gave her so much comfort. "I just really took it to heart that they cared like they did."

Hoyt, a father of an 11-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl, had issues with drugs before, Novick said. And the family had had interactions with police before that weren't as positive.

"My son wasn't perfect, he got into a little trouble and there were a couple of police officers in the past that were pretty rude to us," she said. "I think that's why I was so shocked that these two officers were as nice as they were."

Hoyt had overdosed on heroin two and a half years ago and had, to his mother's knowledge, been clean since. He had been with friends off Boswell Avenue in Norwich when he overdosed the first time, but survived after police officers administered Narcan, Novick said.

At the time of his death he was living in Norwich and working in landscaping. He was planning to get his CDL in a few months.

"I don't know why he just couldn't wait," Novick said. "That one time is all it took."

Novick said she had encouraged her son to move to Florida but he refused to move so far away from her. "He said, 'I can't leave you, I can't live without you,'" Novick said. "But he's expecting me to live without him."

Desmond encouraged anyone suffering from addiction to call the police or check themselves in to any medical facility or emergency room. For families like Novick's, he said, the police are there to help.

"We are not just here to arrest people, we're so much more than that," Desmond said. "We come into people's lives when they are in crisis and we try our best to alleviate and remedy the situation."

The day after her son's death, Novick said the dispatcher called to check in on her. In the weeks that followed, Desmond spoke with her over the phone and helped her coordinate getting Hoyt's phone back, so she could get photos off of it.

When she got the phone, Novick found many photos of her son smiling, holding up fish he had caught.

"He loved fishing and was always saying, 'Let's go fishing,'" Novick said. He liked to fish on the Connecticut River and in Norwich and to take his kayaks down the river to the marina.

He once told his mother, "If I die, cremate me and sprinkle me in the Connecticut River," Novick said.

Hoyt was cremated, and Novick said she plans to have some of his ashes made into necklaces for his children. Then someday, she said, she might bring the rest to the river.

t.hartz@theday.com