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

Dear First Lady Sarah Stitt:
We are writing you as a family who lost a loved one requesting that Oklahoma acknowledge and
honor our loved ones that are the victims of the growing drug crisis in our Nation by erecting a
Drug Epidemic Memorial Wall in all our state capitols across the United States. Until we see the
names, the faces, we will not know of the generation being lost to this epidemic. While many of us
wait on justice for our family member’s death, we all seek awareness and seek answers for
treatment options and how to end this crisis, as no family should have to go through this loss. We
need your help, your voice, to make our voices heard.
My former husband, Todd Ferman, was an airline mechanic for over 20 years. We grew up
together. He had a good heart and was always helping others out. He had a side business and
often was either helping someone with a car that had broken down or simply offering what he had
to a stranger. When an injury at work caused him to have resultant shoulder surgery, he was
prescribed opioids and quickly became addicted. He lost his marriage. His visits with his two
daughters were supervised. He lost his job and his home and became homeless in the last few
years of his life. His addiction cost him everything, including his life. At the age of 53, on March
24, 2020, Todd died from a heroin overdose one day before a bed became available at a rehab
facility, he had been waiting on for over two months. I can tell you his death was life changing for
his daughters and for his parents who will never be the same.
From his daughters’ perspective: Our dad was a loving dad before addiction. We had times when
we did not hear from him that we knew he wasn’t well. In the months before he passed away, he
moved back home with our grandparents, and was seeing a doctor taking the anti-seizure
medication required by the rehab before they would admit him. He called every single day to
check his status on the wait list. We had hope that we would get our dad back! You don’t know
how many times we have thought through all the things we could have changed if we could. If only
there had been a bed available sooner, would he still be with us? If only his girlfriend hadn’t
wanted to see him one more time before he left, would we still have our dad today? Would we
have our dad to walk us down the aisle at our future weddings or to see our children someday? If
the McGirt Ruling had not gone into effect, would she have been prosecuted for providing a lethal
amount of heroin that she injected into him? Those answers are unknown. We can’t change the
past for our dad, but we CAN make sure that our dad is not FORGOTTEN. Will you help us raise
awareness so that someone else doesn’t go through what we have gone through in losing
someone we love to drugs?
Respectfully,
Gina Hunter – Todd’s ex-wife; forever 53
Jessica Ferman - Todd’s Daughter, Age 23
Lindsay Ferman, Todd’s Daughter, age 19
Bixby, Oklahoma
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