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

Dear Governor Hobbs,
My name is Jerel McDonald. I lost my only daughter, Elanor Mae McDonald, last year.
Ellie was 18 years old when she passed away on August 6, 2022, from Fentanyl
poisoning. Ellie had one sibling, her older brother Joe, who is now left as an only child.
Ellie was the light of any room. She made friends easily and delighted her friends,
family, teachers and anyone she spent time with. She was a talented gymnast,
horsewoman and student. She was fiercely loyal, and a lover of all animals and small
children. If she saw a stray dog, nothing else could be done until we stopped and tried
to rescue it. Whenever we saw a young child, her eyes would light up and she would
jokingly ask if we could kidnap them. I wish you could have met her; she was the light of
my life.
When Ellie died, friends traveled from across the country to pay their respects and told
stories of their love for her. One friend, who suffered from suicide ideation, told us that
Ellie was the reason she had decided to live. She had that kind of impact on the people
she met. Unfortunately, Ellie was very social and had more than the usual
experimentation and fascination with drugs in her teens. She was introduced to what
she thought was a prescription pill (Percocet) by a boyfriend and became hooked. It
wasn’t Percocet, it was Fentanyl. We managed to save her that time and get her help.
She was clean for two years, worked her butt off to graduate from high school on time
and managed to get accepted to the University of Arizona. She wanted to become a
therapist and help others who had experienced mental health issues and addiction.
Unfortunately, whether due to stress, peer pressure or the lure of the most addictive
substance on the planet, she relapsed.
One horrible morning, just 10 days before she was to start at the U of A, her brother and
mother found her in her bed, already cold. She had taken a fake Percocet and died
during the night just across the hall from us. I had to receive the phone call and rush
home to the worst scene any parent can imagine. Ten horrible months later, we’re still
trying to put our broken lives back together.
Life will never be the same for our family. My son will never be an uncle, Ellie will never
get to graduate from college, get married or have children. Every day, I wake up like
Groundhog Day and try to figure out how to live in a world where my daughter no longer
exists. Ellie and the thousands of Arizonans who have become victims to this horrible
drug, over 2,000 last year alone, are victims of what amounts to a trans-national
terrorism attack. Will you help honor the victims by putting up an Arizona Memorial Wall
in their honor?
Sincerely,
Jerel McDonald
Flagstaff, Arizona 17