A powerful obituary for a Vermont woman with opioid addiction has inspired more than 100 donations to a local recovery center from around the country and as far away as Denmark.
The family of 30-year-old Madelyn Ellen Linsenmeir posted an obituary for her after she died Oct. 7 that appeared in several newspapers and has been widely shared.
Her relatives wrote that she first tried OxyContin at a high school party, starting a relationship with opioids that dominated her life. They wrote that drug addiction is not a choice or weakness and that people struggling with it need and deserve empathy and support.
Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo questioned on Facebook why it took "a grieving relative with a good literary sense to get people to pay attention" when nearly a quarter-million people have died the same way.
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