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

Dear First Lady Cecilia Abbott,
My name is Leslie D. Inman, and I am writing to you, mother to mother, to ask for your help finding a
permanent place for the Texas Drug Epidemic Memorial Wall. Ideally the State Capitol, but perhaps there
is another location that would be better suited, or doable.
A little bit about my daughter. Marissa passed away on February 15, 2016, at her home in Austin. She was
born April 17, 1990, in Austin where she grew up and went to Brentwood Elementary, Lamar Junior High
and McCallum High School, graduating in 2008. She was a member of the Daughters of the American
Revolution, played kickball and soccer at UHO and was on the McCallum varsity soccer team. She was a
loving mother; her two girls meant the world to her.
Marissa’s death was devastating to all she left behind. She was a 25-year-old young mother with two small
children. Kenzie who was only 11 ½ months and Leylah who was 5. While I lost my daughter, my friend
and the mother of my grandchildren, Marissa lost the opportunity to raise her daughters and one day
become a grandmother herself. She left behind friends who would give anything for just one more day with
her.
The ones with the greatest misfortune are the two little girls who lost their mother. One who mourns deeply
for her mother, a mom she remembers hugging, being pushed on a swing, eating lunch with her every day
at school. The other will never know or remember what a wonderful mom Marissa was. She will only know
her mom through photos we share her and the stories we tell. When she looks back at her childhood
rather than remembering the joy she had with her mother, she will recall visiting her mom’s grave.
Marissa will miss watching her daughters graduate from college, get married, and have children of their
own. Rather than her planning my funeral, deciding what I would wear, what to write in my obituary or say
in my eulogy, I did all of those for her. Rather than visiting my grave, placing flowers, sadly I now visit hers.
Had you told me on Feb 14, 2016, my daughter would die the next day, I would never have believed you.
When I walked up and saw an empty stretcher on the sidewalk and was then told by the first responder my
daughter was dead and they had tried giving her all the medicine she would have been given had they
taken her to the hospital it never registered in my mind that my daughter had just died of a drug overdose.
How would that even be possible? My daughter was healthy and happy and just a normal young mother.
When the medical examiner’s office called 8 weeks later to tell me the cause of death, I refused to believe
what she was telling me. I had no idea what the drug, fentanyl even was. I had never heard of it. I
remember telling her, “No, you are wrong, my daughter did not die of a drug overdose. It is just not
possible”.
A lot has changed since that day in 2016. I now know that she did not die of a drug overdose but instead of
Fentanyl Poisoning.
I was proud to stand behind your husband when he signed the fentanyl bills this summer. I am asking for
your help to place a memorial at or near the Capitol, not only as a memorial for those that have died, but
also to send the message that anyone can die of Fentanyl Poisoning.
Best Regards,
Leslie D Inman
Austin, TX
937