First lady Melania Trump opened the White House’s opioid summit Thursday with a letter from a mother whose son died from a drug overdose.
The mother, Betty Henderson, was brought to the stage as Trump read the letter she had written about her son, Billy, a month after he died. In the letter Henderson implored Trump to work to fight the epidemic.
“No mother should ever have to claim their child’s body,” she wrote in a portion of the letter Trump read aloud. “I’m sure that you as a mother would have an understanding of the depths of despair experience I had on that day.”
The letter continued: “I’m asking for your help in claiming these lost souls before drugs take them from this earth.”
Trump said the story had touched her personally, and had touched people in the room.
“Thank you for having the strength to reach out in the midst of your grief,” she told Henderson.
She urged the more than 200 people gathered at the White House to keep Henderson and her son in mind as they discuss how to combat the epidemic.
“Sadly, she’s not alone, and we need to change that,” Trump said.
The opioid summit is a series of panels highlighting what the Trump administration has done to fight the abuse of prescription painkillers and illegal drugs such as heroin and fentanyl. Deaths have been climbing, with more than 42,000 killed in 2016, federal data show.
As first lady, Trump has visited facilities that work with mothers whose babies are facing withdrawal, and she has sat in on meetings discussing how different groups are working to bring about more treatment to people with addictions.
“Our unified goal is helping all who have been affected by drug addiction, and for me that means focusing on babies and young mothers, which is something I have seen often in my travels,” she said.
