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

Dear First Lady Casey DeSantis,
My name is Corrine DeJarnette and I am a member of the Drug Epidemic Memorial Wall
campaign. Our goal is to put up a Memorial Wall in all 50 State Capitol complexes to honor
our lost loved ones and continue to provide a voice for them. We are all victims of this
national drug epidemic. Our nation is better than this, and we need to continue to shed light
on this national drug crisis. To successfully do this, we need your help. Will you help us to let
the nation know that WE, as Floridians, will do all we can to stop these senseless deaths?
My daughter was a warm and loving person, younger sister to her brother, aunt to 3, and best
friend to me and her fiancé. She had a happy, addictive laugh that would have everyone in
the room laughing with her sense of humor.
Kaitlin Elizabeth DeJarnette was born 9/21/1995, my youngest child of 2 and my only girl.
Kaitlin loved her family and her friends and any kind of animal. She would do anything she
could to help anyone/anything in need. Katie will forever be 26 years old. She struggled with
addiction to opioids, specifically heroin, in the beginning, for 6 years after hanging with “the
wrong crowd”. She had several stays in private and County run rehabs and did better and
better each time at working her Recovery Program. She was finding full-time employment,
paying her debts, and wanting to be a productive member of society. She even talked about
becoming an addiction counselor after her probation was done and she could get back into
college. She was known in the rehabs she did attend as someone to always be there for the
newer house members; to show them the ropes and help them find their way, was honest
with them when they made a wrong choice and was looked up to by her peers in recovery.
Her struggle caused her so much unhappiness, but I know she did not want to die. The
disease of addiction has no cure, it is a lifelong struggle for those caught in its web with
someone always around in her time of weakness to sell her the relief she craved: freedom
from the horrible illness and emotional pain she suffered from. Her need for relief was always
around the corner, a person ready to steal her life to make money and with no regard for
human life.
In the early morning of March 17, 2022, I received a phone call from Kaitlin’s fiancé crying
and yelling “she’s blue Ma, you have to come now, the Sherriff’s are here”. It was my worst
fear come true; my beautiful baby girl was gone from an accidental overdose of fentanyl! I
refuse to have her become another “statistic” in this horrible epidemic. I will be an advocate in
this fight and an ally to those struggling in similar situations. This is why I ask that you help all
of us honor our loved ones. Kaitlin forever 26.
Sincerely and with Warm Regards,
Corrine DeJarnette
Port Richey, FL
225