USA First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff

Dear First Partner Siebel Newsom,
I am an ambassador for the Drug Epidemic Memorial Walls. I lost my beautiful son, Jacob
who is forever 24. He was poisoned by fentanyl, taking one single pill he thought was
Xanax but was illicit fentanyl. My family and I remain devastated. We love and miss him
fiercely, and our hearts are shattered. My son was a bright light in the lives of all who
knew him. I recently had the rare and possibly once in a lifetime chance to visit the D.E.A.
exhibit, ‘The Faces of Fentanyl Wall’ in Washington DC, to honor my beloved son. In the
following paragraph I have reiterated my Facebook post describing my deeply emotional
experience.
After waiting for over three hours in the windy, cold morning, sitting outside the DEA
Museum in Arlington, sobbing, down to 12 minutes of time left, I was finally let in to see
my boy. Four security guards and our Worldstrides tour guide raced around to help me
find my son upon a wall of thousands, and I found him. Seeing his sweet face amongst all
the other beautiful angels, I completely broke down. I found myself hugging the security
guards, who had handed me tissues and tried to comfort me that entire morning as I
waited. My original plan had been to spend a reflective two hours looking at every lovely
face, honoring every angel. That was no longer possible as I only had four minutes left. I
tried to take as many photos as I could in less than two minutes. Out of the corner of my
eye I noticed a woman and behind her was a cameraman. They were the reason I had
been put on hold, waiting long past the normal 10 a.m. opening time. She approached me
with tears in her eyes, telling me how powerful it was to see my emotions, my despair and
grief. She asked if I would mind answering a few questions and I looked over at the
WorldStrides Rep, the one who had come to help me to make sure I had a ride back to
the tour bus in time, and he said I had three minutes left to answer questions. A mic was
put on me, and I began blubbering my way through the questions, trying to explain my
son's story in three minutes and my pain was raw. Through my tears, on another wall, I
could see my sister in grief, Lisa Marquez's son Fernando. I noted, there are so many
gone. The reporter thanked me, told me how very powerful my story was, and how sorry
she was for my tragic loss. I repeated to her again how beautiful Jacob was and found out
she was from NBC.
I was then ushered to the waiting Uber, raced the 12 minutes through Arlington to the bus
where my students and coworkers who had worked together with WorldStrides to give me
this precious gift of time and transport, were waiting for me with big hugs. As we left for
Philly on the buses, and I was describing my emotional experience that morning, my
coworker pointed out the window said "Oh my God, look! and on top of a random building
was my son's name, Jacob. This was a sign from my beautiful boy. I share this experience