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

Dear First Lady Sharon Landry,
I am an ambassador for the Drug Epidemic Memorial Wall. I have lost three children to
opioids. On March 6, 2006, I lost my son, Matthew Stephen McAlister, 24 years of age,
to an overdose of methadone. Matthew was the first of my three children to die. My
very first experience with true soul-shattering.
Words fail to adequately express what it felt like for me to see my 24-year-old son,
Matthew, lying there, lifeless, in that refrigerated room on that metal gurney, covered
with a billowing white sheet. In that instant, my heart shattered into millions and millions
of teeny-tiny jagged, bleeding pieces. Matthew’s spirit had long gone and along with his
absent spirit, my second-born son’s personality, smile, laughter, and bright future.
Matthew was a National Merit Scholar. He was smart, witty, funny, and loved making
everyone laugh. Matthew was tragically ripped from me and his family and this world by
drugs.
We need your help! Please assist us in finding a permanent location for a Drug
Epidemic Memorial Wall within our Capitol in Baton Rouge or in another Louisiana
State building. We want photos of our loved ones permanently displayed. Our children’s
lives mattered. Their deaths matter. They deserve to be treated like victims, for each of
them was a victim of the Pharmaceutical Industry. And those murdered by the evil
poisoning that is fentanyl are victims at the hands of drug dealers, the cartel, and China
and Mexico.
A group of Louisiana parents would like to meet with you and work together to prevent
this hell on earth that is child death from drugs from happening to other families. We
need your help and pray that you will consider our request.
God bless you,
Pamela Riviere-Rivas,
Mother of Matthew Stephen McAlister, Forever 24.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
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