“My mother could still be alive if there had been a mask mandate long before and if Texas had remained closed,” Fiana Tulip told CNN’s Don Lemon on Wednesday.
“My mother was a front-line worker and she didn’t have the Netflix option and relax … I had to go to work,” said Tulip. “Whether these front-line workers want to be heroes or not, they have no choice.”
Papadimitriou started feeling sick on a Saturday and died a week later on July 4, Tulip said. Abbott issued a statewide mask mandate on July 2.
But Tulip has channeled his pain into action, encouraging people to take the virus seriously, he said. Although she was sad, shocked, and upset the first few days, she quickly began to think about the ways she believes the state has fallen short of preventing the coronavirus.
“I looked at the way Texas leaders handled the virus and found it reckless and sloppy,” Tulip said. “I couldn’t understand why they opened so early, and as the cases continued to increase, they continued to open.”
In an open letter accompanying his mother’s obituary published in the Austin American-Statesman, Tulip specifically targeted Abbott, writing that his “inaction and active denial” of the devastation of the virus means that the lost are “just numbers to you” .
He also invited Abbott to his mother’s funeral “to witness first-hand the tragedy of my brother and I in mourning for our amazing mother who gave her life to save others.”
Abbott has not publicly responded to the letter and did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Tulip told Lemon that he had not heard from his office.
CNN’s Allison Gordon contributed to this report.
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