Help Mara raise money

Growing up, I always knew my mom was pretty amazing, but it wasn’t until I got older myself (and realized how difficult life is and found out there’s no owner’s manual for any of it), that I realized just what a superhero she actually was, and of course still is.

As a single mother raising 4 kids, my mom one day over dinner in 2011 announced that she’d be going back to school to become a nurse. Even though she always hated when her own kids were sick - I have very clear memories of waking her up in the middle of the night telling her I just threw up and her telling me to “Go to bed”🤣 - I knew as soon as she made that announcement at the kitchen table that she was going to be the best nurse ever.

My mom continued raising four kids, while in school full time, at an age society often thinks is too old to start again. My mom never does anything halfway either, so she bought a whole bunch of colored pens, some notebooks, and notecards, and graduated at the top of her class. OF COURSE! I remember sitting at that same kitchen table with her quizzing her on different kinds of medications: their uses, interactions, and side effects. As a teenager, I was at a very impressionable stage in my life, and I will always be forever grateful that my example during that time was of my mom - the strongest, bravest, most independent, yet deeply empathetic and caring woman I ever have and ever will meet.

Though I’ve never had the privilege of meeting any of my mom’s patients throughout her 9 years as a nurse working with warriors fighting leukemia and lymphoma at Shadyside Hospital, I just KNOW based on my experience of being her daughter for the past 27 years that she makes all of their worst days just a little bit brighter, just as she has mine my whole life.

So why am I telling you all of this??? Well on May 7, 2023, my mom and I will be walking the Pittsburgh Half-Marathon (AGAIN, SHE’S A SUPERHERO! I only hope I’m able to walk a half-marathon with my daughter when I’m her age) in honor and support of all of her patients. We have chosen the Mario Lemieux Foundation (https://mariolemieux.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA1ZGcBhCoARIsAGQ0kkqmJ8lZP5pl7MNQrpCMDpwWP8sfT_rzGhDaPHFTaW_DxQmtUztBQRkaAo4UEALw_wcB) as our charity, which is dedicated to raising money for cancer treatments and cures.

If you have read this far, my ask of you is this: to either consider donating to this worthy cause, or to go out into the world and spread the same kind of love my mom spreads everyday, because as JJ Heller sings, “I know that this world would be better / If everyone had a mother like [me]”

Thank you in advance for your generosity and kind deeds! I can’t wait to share pics of us on race day!