In The News: Portraits Of Those Killed By Heroin Bring Healing And Awareness

Amanda Jordan, Diane Yelle and Jim Zanfagna hold portraits of their children killed by overdoses at a service for families affected by addiction at the First Baptist Church of Plaistow on Dec. 20, in Plaistow, N.H. Anne Marie Zanfagna stands in the back.
Tamara Keith/NPR

Originally published on NPR.org on December 27, 2015…

When Jackie Zanfagna died last year at 25 years old, her parents did something bold. In the first sentence of her obituary they acknowledge what killed her: an accidental overdose of heroin.

Now her mom Anne Marie Zanfagna is pouring her grief out onto canvas and in the process helping other parents who have experienced the same loss.

Zanfagna is an artist. But, she says, for six months after her daughter died she was too devastated to pick up a paint brush.

“I didn’t want to shower,” Zanfagna said. “All kinds of things. You just don’t want to do anything. But I figured I have to start doing something. And then I decided that I wanted to paint a picture of Jacqueline.”

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