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

Dearest First Lady Janet Holcomb,
I am writing this letter with tears in my eyes because we lost our beautiful baby boy,
Garett Robert Summers on November 21, 2021, to fentanyl laced cocaine. Garett
was only 21 years old. His life was only just beginning. He was my sweetest child
with a heart of gold. He was sensitive, artistic, silly, poetic, extremely athletic, funny,
and had the world's greatest giggle. I miss that giggle so very much. Garett was
always my cautious child, looking out for his older brother, little sister, and friends.
He loved his grammie, gramma, grampie, and grampa immensely and seemed to
carry the weight of the world on his shoulders when family life got stressful. You
see, our family suffers with a history of panic, anxiety, food and chemical
sensitivities, and A-fib events.
As a mother, I tried my best to raise our children right with zero drugs or alcohol in
the home. We played outside in the back yard together all day. We took wonderful
nature hikes at state parks and took amazing family vacations. We had big, beautiful
birthday parties with friends and family. We had yearly Halloween parties where we
dressed up in a fun family costume theme. We went to Sunday school, and took our
children to police/fire/rescue safety events, etc. I tried to give my children a rich life
immersed with love, laughter, adventure, and faith! In 2011, I had a long health
crisis. I know that it affected my kids, especially Garett because he was my
sensitive child who seemed to really care deeply. In the summer of 9th grade, Garett
tried marijuana in the woods behind our home with the neighbor boys, as well as my
oldest son Gavin. One of the neighbor boys brought the joint that day, so there was
peer pressure. Gavin didn't care for it; but unfortunately, Garett found some type of
relief/escape from it. This led to further drug experimentation. We sought help in
multiple ways, including his first 45-day rehab visit during his senior year of high
school. My husband found our beautiful boy on our cold garage floor taking some of
his very last breaths November 21, 2021. He frantically performed CPR and called
for help. Unfortunately, Narcan didn't seem to work because of Garett's body
temperature. Or maybe we just found him too late. For a parent, this is beyond
anything I could ever describe to you. Please, First Lady Holcomb, can you help me
bring about change in our addiction and mental health programs? It is so
desperately needed! How can we change the stigma that comes with substance
abuse disorder? Furthermore, how do we put an end to this horrible, horrible
fentanyl crisis in our country?
355