OUTPOURING OF LOVE STUNS GRIEVING LAWMAKER MACE

News That Heroin Addiction Drove Daughter To Commit Suicide Strikes A
Familiar Chord In The Community

State Rep. Frana Araujo Mace's from-the-gut announcement that her daughter
killed herself because she could not bear her addiction to heroin prompted
an outpouring that has stunned the north Denver lawmaker.

She has fielded hundreds of phone calls from all over the state, from
politicians to teary strangers who know all too well what it is like to
lose a loved one to drugs.

"One person said, 'I'm calling to say thank you. Maybe if you speak up,
someone else will,' " Mace said.

Her youngest child, Frankie Louise Mace, 36, hanged herself Saturday after
writing a chilling suicide note that began, "I'm nothing more than a junkie."

Frankie Mace's son found his mother's body Sunday morning when she didn't
show up for the family's weekly pancake breakfast.

"She could have been a movie star, but she took a different road," Frana
Mace said as she studied her daughter's picture.

"She became an addict and it killed her."

Mace said many Coloradans seemed surprised that she was so open about her
daughter's problems, including stints in jail and prison on drug charges.

"I want people to know. I want everyone to know how heroin is a destroyer,"
Mace said this week as she planned her daughter's funeral in between phone
calls and accepting food and flowers.

"But I have to say, I never expected the reaction I've gotten," she added.

The rosary will be said at 6 p.m. Friday at Newcomer Family Mortuary &
Crematory, 7277 W. Colfax Ave., in Lakewood.

A funeral Mass is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at the Cathedral of the
Immaculate Conception.

It will be celebrated by Bishop Jose Gomez, who had traveled with Mace last
week when a group of Coloradans visited Mexico's president, Vicente Fox.

Immediately after the service, the family will greet guests at Luna's
Mexican Restaurant at West 38th Avenue and Julian Street.

Frankie Mace will be cremated.

She was the youngest of Gil and Frana Mace's seven children. Frankie had
three children -- Tony, 17, Eric, 11, and Frana, 9, who are being raised by
their grandparents because of their mother's addiction.