A hearbroken mother is opening up about the loss of her daughter, who died of an opioid overdose at age 28 after nearly a decade of heroin addiction.
Lexi Lamoureux grew up just outside Portland, Maine with a loving family and grew up to have friends, boyfriends, and a college degree — but at 19 years old, she tried heroin for the first time, and it changed the rest of her short life.
Now her mother Susan, 51, is speaking out about her daughter’s life and battle with drugs, telling The Sun that if it can happen to her little girl, it can happen to anyone.
Tragic: Lexi Lamoureux died of an opioid overdose at age 28 after nearly a decade of heroin addiction
Heartbroken: Her mother Susan is sharing her story to combat stigma and ideas about addicts
Susan described Lexi as ‘inquisitive, playful, and intelligent’ with a ‘smile that lit up a room.’
After high school, she went on to study law at Lowell University in Massachusetts and was on the right track, until a friend got a bit of heroin and Lexi injected it at college at the age of 19.
Susan said her daughter was never the same after that.
‘It was heart-wrenching for those of us who loved her as we watched her suffer. We did everything we could think of, desperate to help her in some way. We bestowed unconditional love, guidance, and encouragement upon her,’ she said.
‘Time and time again she went to rehab, gained strength, started her life again and was determined to stay free from heroin.’
While she was clean, she’d work, attend class, pursue alternative therapies and holistic living. But, like countless opioid addicts, she’d keep returning to the drugs.
On the morning of September 16, 2017, Lexi was at home at her parents house, texting her boyfriend from the floor of her childhood bedroom.
‘Lexi was not a “junkie,”‘ she said. ‘She was somebody. She was our beloved daughter’
Caught up: She loved poetry, Audrey Hepburn, The Bell Jar, and animals, including her two dogs. She rode horses at Seaview Boarding Stable in Rockport
Lexi’s dad Chris (right) found her when she overdosed in her room
At 10:30am, her dad Chris, 51, found her unconscious on the floor. She’d been injecting heroin.
‘When I went in she looked like she was sleeping and I immediately reached down to feel her wrist for her pulse but there wasn’t one — her heart was not beating,’ her mother recalled.
Susan, Chris, and Lexi’s then-16-year-old brother looked on, terrified, waiting for paramedics to arrive. Lexi also had an older brother, Jeremy, who was 25 at the time and met them at the hospital.
Doctors said that Lexi’s brain had been without oxygen for about 45 minutes. A cat scan revealed that the only part of Lexi’s brain still working controlled the heartbeat. She was being kept alive by machines, but if she survived, she’d never be the same.
‘He explained that he had studied over 700 cat scans and that he had never seen one worse than Lexi’s. There was no hope for our Lexi. We were all devastated,’ Susan said.
Just a girl: Susan said Lexi was loved and raised my parents who tried to give her the best
Horrific: She tried heroin for the first time at age 19 and struggled with addiction for nearly a decade before overdosing
‘I insisted on staying with Lexi and spent the long nights talking to her, kissing her and telling her simple things like how she had her daddy’s chin. I counted her freckles and studied her fingers and toes desperate to etch them into my mind – so worried I would forget.
‘Each day I washed Lexi’s face and put lotion on it, Chapstick on her lips and dabbed her favorite perfume behind her ears and on her wrists. I nuzzled into her neck as I cried for her and I cried for me and I cried for our family.’
Three days later, recipients had been found for Lexi’s organs, and it was time to say goodbye.
Before Lexi underwent surgery to have her organs removed for donation, her mom got into bed to cuddle with her for the last time.
‘I knew I had to let her go. But I’ll never forget the moment where I gave my Lexi one last kiss then watched her being pushed into the elevator. I didn’t take my eyes off of her beautiful face. And as doors closed, I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces,’ she said.
Lots of love: She had a boyfriend whom she’d been texting when she overdosed
After she was gone, Susan found her journal, where she’d written the words: ‘I’m addicted and it’s disgusting.’
‘I hadn’t read that until after she was gone,’ her mother told Salem News. ‘It was the most heartbreaking thing because she knew what it was doing to her, but she couldn’t stop.’
‘She hated herself. She was full of shame, and she knew what she was doing was wrong, but she was already addicted.’
Susan said she is speaking out because the stigma of people with heroin addiction needs to be dispelled. She first shared her story on Facebook in 2018, where it went viral.
‘Because of that I felt a stronger need to reach more people,’ she said. ‘I want people to know Lexi, because I want them to know that no matter how you were raised, how happy you’ve been, who you are, it doesn’t matter. Heroin is everywhere.’
Susan said: ‘It can happen to your child or loved one just as quickly and easily’
Speaking to The Sun, she counted the ways that her daughter was wonderful, and that she was raised with morals and values by loving parents who want to give her the best.
She loved poetry, Audrey Hepburn, The Bell Jar, and animals, including her two dogs. She rode horses at Seaview Boarding Stable in Rockport.
‘Lexi was not a “junkie,”‘ she said. ‘She was somebody. She was our beloved daughter. Her father and I will forever wonder if there was anything we could have done differently.’
Susan warned others that it only takes using one time to get addicted, and it can happen to anyone.
‘If my precious daughter, who had the world at her feet and the love and support of her family, could become addicted from that first heroin use and subsequently die from an overdose, then it can happen to your child or loved one just as quickly and easily,’ she said.