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

Dear Governor Laura Kelly,
My name is Susan Flack. I am currently living the saddest path I could ever have
imagined. I lost my son, Matthew, to fentanyl poisoning on May 14, 2022, a day so deeply
engrained in my memory. Matthew was my first-born son. He was full of fun, life, and love.
He was a sports fanatic. He was a college graduate. He was a wonderful big brother to his
three brothers and a loving father to his two small children.
Matt battled addiction for several years. He tried so hard to overcome his addiction. He
had been clean for 18 months and verbally proclaimed that he could never relapse as he
knew too well all the fentanyl-laced drugs that have made their way into our country, state,
city, and neighborhoods.
We were all so proud of Matt for staying on the path and becoming the father he wanted
to be to his two children, Taylor, 11, and Hunter, seven. Matt’s life was falling into place.
He was working with his best friend and brother, being a father, going fishing, playing
baseball, and going on dates with his daughter. He was simply doing great.
Early on Saturday morning, May 14, 2022, that horrible call came in. Matt would not
answer his bedroom door which was locked. I knew immediately it had happened. He
slipped. He was searching for that good old “high”, but instead got fentanyl, and it took his
last breath. It took him. It took my son, their brother, their father, their nephew, their
grandson, and their friend. Fentanyl had taken him.
I remember the last time I hugged Matt. He was smiling. He was happy. He said, “I love
you, Mama”. This opioid and fentanyl crisis is profound, devastating, and so tremendously
unfair to the American family.
I ask you, in the memory of so many wonderful children, parents, brothers and sisters, to
help us keep our loved ones’ memories alive by supporting a Memorial Wall with the
names and faces of those lost to drugs in Kansas. A Memorial Wall will help us keep this
crisis at the forefront for our lawmakers to help us all overcome this epidemic of death by
fentanyl.
A grieving mother,
Susan Flack – Matt’s mom; forever 37
Shawnee, Kansas