As I look back over the past twelve months, I am amazed at what we have accomplished. CURE Childhood Cancer has made a big difference in the lives of children and their families. We see the impact every day as we serve on the front lines. But we could do nothing without your generous support. Let’s look at what we’ve done together.

The heartbeat of CURE is our families, and we increased the amount of financial assistance given to families in crisis by 26% over last year. That translates into $153,217 in emergency assistance and $20,000 in transportation assistance grants given to 373 families in need. We also provided $15,265 worth of gas, grocery, and pharmacy cards. This is tangible support given to hundreds of families forced to deal with the devastation a childhood cancer diagnosis brings. In order to meet a need we recently discovered, your gifts allowed us to create a new lodging assistance fund to help families who travel for treatment and need a place to stay for one or two nights.

We quadrupled the number of counseling sessions provided to families in need of emotional support, helping 37 families through the psychological and emotional hardships of childhood cancer. We also hosted more than 100 parents at our bereavement weekends.

CURE’s Open Arms Meal Program served lunches and dinners to over 10,000 hospitalized patients, parents, siblings, and nurses in Atlanta and Savannah. Our patient and family services team also delivered 1854 snack bags and 400 toiletry bags. CURE joined 396 families in their first days of diagnosis by giving a tote full of practical items and tips from other families who have walked the childhood cancer journey. And when we learned that many South Georgia families receive treatment in Jacksonville, your gifts allowed us to offer our support there, also.

Those are numbers; and they are both impressive and important. But our work is not in numbers, it is in people – specifically children fighting cancer and their families. So I wanted to share a recent note we received from a mom dealing with the aftermath of her son’s cancer treatment.

“The implications of our son’s cancer diagnosis did not end the day treatment was completed. Post-treatment implications were just different. I was deeply grateful for the counseling sessions CURE provided because they helped us move forward in a positive manner after cancer treatment and our son has transitioned beautifully back into school, play dates with other children and normal daily living.”

That is a real family, a real problem, and a real solution provided by CURE – made possible only through your generosity. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve families in crisis, but that is only part of our mission. Because children are still fighting cancer, we will too.

Our goal is to eradicate childhood cancer. To that end, CURE awarded over $3.2 million in research grants aimed at improving the survival rates of children fighting cancer. While survival rates are increasing for some childhood cancers, too many children are still left behind. With your support, we are changing that.

Thank you for entrusting us with this work. We are grateful every day for the role your generosity allows us to play in the lives of these precious families. Our hope remains that this will be the year we find a cure.

With Gratitude,

 

Kristin Connor

Executive Director, CURE Childhood Cancer

 

Her last name, Abbas, means “lion” in Arabic and you don’t have to talk with Anisah very long to realize that behind her beautiful, smiling countenance beats the heart of a lion.

Anisah is twelve. She is outgoing and incredibly bright. She wants to go to Bali, Italy, and Japan. She wants to visit every state – a goal she is fast approaching. She wants to road-trip to California; but mostly, she wants to leave cancer in her dust as she drives away. Because this lion is fighting cancer for the fourth time.

Anisah was first diagnosed with a Wilms tumor at two years-old. After harsh treatment and surgery to remove a kidney, the cancer returned when she was eight, and then again when she was ten.

Last year, Anisah’s cousin, Misha, convinced her to make a short movie about her life’s story. Then Misha submitted it to The America I Am Youth Film Competition, which is part of the Tribeca Film Institute. Films in the competition had to be five minutes or less and created by a child between the ages of twelve and eighteen. As a budding actress, Anisah had a great time creating the film but also developed a passion for the production and editing aspects of filmmaking.

And then the call came!

Anisah’s film, Life of a Lion, was chosen as one of the top five finalists out of two hundred entries.

“I was so excited,” she recalled. “I started screaming and jumping up and down. And then I started getting ready to go to New York!”

Just before she left, a routine six-month scan revealed that her cancer was back for the fourth time.

“It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “I’ve been through so much and I don’t think I deserve this. But I’m more positive this time and I’m not scared. Sometimes people treat you different, but all of my friends are really supporting me.”

Right away, there were questions about whether she would be able to go to awards ceremony in New York City. She told her doctors she would do whatever it took, and they gave her a bridge chemo which allowed her to travel. She said she actually felt pretty good as she prepared to leave.

The trip was wonderful. She went with her mom and sister, Asiya, and Misha flew in from California to join them. She got to attend classes on filmmaking and meet the other entrants. When it came time for the awards, Anisah’s story won the award for Best Story!

“All of the other kids had expensive cameras and production crews,” Anisah laughed. “I made mine with an iPhone 6 and only my cousin and sister helped me. I heard someone say their budget was a thousand dollars. My budget was zero.”

Anisah was the youngest film finalist in Tribeca Film history.

With that honor under her belt, Anisah hopes to make more films, specifically documentaries, after she is finished with cancer. She also loves to sing and Bollywood dance. Although it seems that she is on track to a career in the arts, she has a strong desire to be in the military. Her grandfather was a pilot in her family’s home country of Bangladesh, and she wants to follow his footsteps into the Air Force.

“Even though I am small, I feel that I’m a lion because I am fierce and strong,” she says. “And nothing can stop me!”

Don’t put it past her to be a pilot, soldier, or anything else she chooses. After all, lions are beautiful, but they were made to roar.

 

You can watch Anisah’s winning film by clicking here.

 

How would you creatively engage attendees at a trade show with your products while at the same time teaching them about your company’s social initiatives? Our friends at Virtustream found a unique way.

In May, Virtustream sponsored a booth at the Sapphire Now conference in Orlando, where business and IT executives come from around the world to learn more about new SAP products. But they wanted to do more than promote their products. They wanted to share their social conscience with everyone they met at the show.

While their presenters held sessions on their product offering at Virtustream’s booth, a digital whiteboard artist drew renderings pertaining to the topics. She worked the presentation into a piece of art right before the attendees’ eyes. This allowed everyone passing by to see what was going on and basically acted as an advertisement for their booth. Further, when the session was finished, Virtustream had the images downloaded to a t-shirt press so those who attended could literally wear the notes home.

Now they were ready to add their heart to the effort. They call their cause marketing “Virtustream In Action,” and CURE Childhood Cancer is one of their chosen charities. Not only did they highlight CURE’s important work in the life of children and families fighting cancer, but in keeping with the artistic theme, presenters gave out crayons. Nothing can link art and children like a crayon. Crayons were given for attendance, participation, and for asking literally any question. At the end of the session, attendees were asked to deposit the crayons in boxes marked with CURE’s logo. For each crayon deposited, Virtustream made a monetary donation to CURE.

 

At the end of the show, the donation totaled $5000.

It is exciting to see one of our corporate partners use creativity and ingenuity to share our efforts with a whole new audience. Many thanks to Jennifer Russo for spearheading this idea and for the entire team at Virtustream for coloring CURE all over the show.

 

“That one word, six letters, two syllables,” recalls Adrienne Young. “That word, cancer – it changed my life forever.”

Until the day she heard that word, Adrienne lived a happy, yet hectic life. In the mornings, she got her daughter ready for school and took her son to stay with family while she worked. She enjoyed playing with her kids in the evenings and then got up to do it all over again the next day – until the day came that two-year-old Amari stopped eating.

“At the time, I thought my daughter was bringing home germs from school because Amari had just been to the pediatrician in September, and the doctor said it was just an upper respiratory infection.”

But when Adrienne picked Amari up on November 26, 2014 and listened to her family describe how he had been acting that day, she immediately called the pediatrician’s office. Because it was the day before Thanksgiving, the doctor’s office had closed early so she decided to take him to the emergency room. A preliminary X-ray indicated pneumonia, and the doctor decided to transfer Amari to another hospital better suited to care for him.

The next day Adrienne heard that word – cancer.

Amari was diagnosed with Pleuropulmonary Blastoma or PPB. PPB is a rare type of childhood cancer which begins in the chest, usually in the lung tissue. Because its symptoms are so similar to pneumonia, PPB often goes undiagnosed until it progresses, as it had in Amari. X-rays showed that the tumor inside his little body was approximately the size of a football.

“I’ve read about cancer and have had family members fight it,” Adrienne said. “But I never thought I would go through it with my own child. Before he was born I prayed to God he would be a cute, healthy baby with a lot of hair. How did we go from being told pneumonia to cancer?”

The next two things the doctor told her scared Adrienne even more. He said that although he had treated many children with cancer, he had never seen this particular type. Further, the type of cancer which had invaded Amari’s chest was so rare that he could not find any statistics on survival rates.

Instead of going to Chuck E Cheese for his third birthday party as planned, Amari spent the day in the hospital while the doctors decided on a treatment plan. One night, Amari’s breathing became increasingly labored because of the growing tumor inside him. Finally, Amari was rushed into surgery, where the surgeon was able to remove the entire tumor. Once he recovered from surgery, Amari began the first of twelve rounds of chemotherapy.

In the following months, Amari missed family gatherings and holidays, and he was forced to spend long periods of time away from his sister during hospital stays. Because she wouldn’t leave his side, Adrienne had to quit her job.

“Watching his hair fall out, not being able to go in the operating room with him, and seeing so many chemo drugs going into his body was never easy,” remembers Adrienne. “But the greatest day finally came on July 29, 2015. It was his last chemo day!”

Amari weathered the storm and is doing great now. He currently attends Pre-K and is what his mother likes to call “a true boy” – energetic and always ready with a smile. He still must get periodic scans, but, thus far, he has shown no evidence of side effects from the treatment. In fact, he has grown to be proud of the scars which mark that period of his life, especially the one that runs down the middle of his chest from the surgery to remove the tumor. He calls that his beauty mark.

CURE has been with Amari and his family since the beginning, and we are thrilled to watch him become “a true boy.” We continue to work for the day when all children put cancer behind them and have the chance to reach their full potential.

 

 

“Everything is everything… But you’re missing”

           -Bruce Springsteen

Introducing Jack’s Fund

 

Never before and never again will there be anyone quite like Jack Kennedy.

He was larger than life! Charismatic with a sense of humor that will remain unmatched, he was a long-time, extremely generous supporter of CURE and the children we serve.

Jack’s history is a fascinating one. He met and married his wife, Donna, while he was a national sales manager for a gift wholesaler. But over the years he also worked as a bartender, cabdriver, caddy, and a sports talk radio host – during which time he met a young pitcher named for the Atlanta Braves named Tom Glavine.

It was Glavine who would introduce Jack to the world of childhood cancer and the mission of CURE – a mission about which he became incredibly passionate.

The two worked together on many events for CURE, and after Glavine received the phone call from the Hall of Fame that he would be a first-ballot inductee, Jack decided to mark the occasion with some good-natured ribbing. He had six dozen customized golf balls inscribed with, “Tom Glavine 203 losses”.

“I knew him before he was good,” said Kennedy. “With all this talk about Tom having 305 wins and Greg Maddux having 355, nobody ever mentions that they also had 430 losses between them. So, I figured I’d have these made for Tom through a golf professional friend in Chicago. Nobody laughed harder about it than Tom Glavine.”

By this time, Jack had become a successful figure in the furniture industry. He proudly represented upholstered furniture lines to Havertys, and over two decades developed a strong business for them and adopted all of their employees as his second family. His compassion and passion ran deep in every facet of his life.

Jack was determined to end the suffering of children fighting cancer. He was truly committed to CURE Childhood Cancer, acting as Presenting Sponsor for many events, and as an ambassador for the cause wherever he went. As he fought his own battle with cancer, he said he could not bear the thought of children having to suffer from this horrific disease, and he fought up until his own death to improve theirs.

Jack passed away on January 3, 2017.  To all of us and most others, his death was sudden and unexpected. Jack had been fighting cancer – bravely and silently. He didn’t want to be the focus of attention, so he kept his fight a secret. Through Jack’s Fund, we will honor the man we adored and continue his legacy of loving children with cancer by working to find cures. All funds raised will be directed toward life-saving pediatric cancer research reviewed by CURE’s Scientific Advisory Council and deemed to be likely to have clinical or therapeutic application within 5 years. We feel certain that Jack would want funds raised in his memory to advance research that will help children today. We proudly and humbly further Jack’s wishes through this fund named for him.

Jack’s Fund

 

Jack Kennedy

February 7, 1951 – January 3, 2017

 

From Clinical Trial to Graduation Day

 

Among the pediatric cancer research projects that CURE funded in 2011 was a clinical trial for leukemia at the Aflac Cancer Center at Children’s Hospital of Atlanta. The doctor’s progress report at that time read as follows:

“Dr. KY Chiang at Aflac is now in year three of his clinical trial using AMD3100 as a chemosensitizing agent in blood and marrow transplants in chemotherapy-resistant acute leukemia patients. The one patient enrolled in the study (which hoped to enroll more, but no other patients met the criteria) received the treatment and is now more than 600 days post treatment, with no signs of leukemia or GvHD.”

Note that only one patient met the criteria to be enrolled in the study. That fact disappointed the doctor as he had hoped to gather more data from a larger pool of patients. But it did not disappoint that patient or her family. We know that because we asked her mom.

In August of 2011, Elena completed her treatment for ALL. Unfortunately, her first battle was not a complete victory. Elena relapsed in February of 2012. Instead of enjoying the carefree days of summer, Elena underwent nine intense days of chemo and radiation to prepare her body for a life-saving bone marrow transplant.

“Elena’s body didn’t respond to the chemo,” said her mother, Christy. “We were scared and frustrated and running out of options when we learned that Elena met the criteria to be part of a clinical trial at CHOA Egleston. The experimental treatment was very hard on her and she was in the hospital for several months, but the treatment cured Elena.”

She had her bone marrow transplant on July 25, 2012, nearly five years ago. And on May 25, 2017, she walked across the stage as a high school graduate!

“These years have been challenging in so many ways – spending over two months in the hospital, three weeks in the Ronald McDonald House, and living in isolation until May of the following year!” she said. “But Elena just turned eighteen. She graduated with honors and a 3.93 GPA. She has had perfect attendance her senior year and logged over 100 community service hours – all while struggling with late term effects of treatment. We are so very proud of her and all she has accomplished! And these added years of Elena’s life are because of CURE’s funding of the trial Elena was on!”

CURE directs $3.2 million or more annually to targeted research which is likely to have a positive impact on children within five years. Due to privacy restrictions, we don’t often get to see the fruits of those investments. But today, pictures of a girl with beautiful red hair and stunning smile reaching out to grasp her diploma show us the reward of our work… and your work as you partner with us to find a cure.

 

Effective Parenting and Decision Making Includes Monitoring for PTSD

By Carleen Newsome, LPC

When someone in our family is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness like cancer, we often experience a wide range of emotions. When it is our child who receives the diagnosis, we may feel heart-wrenching fear and anxiety unlike anything we have ever experienced. The moment we hear “the news” is a moment etched in our memories. Distressing or life-threatening moments like that are traumatic experiences that can severely compromise our emotional well-being. Unfortunately, when our child has cancer we are continuously exposed to an onslaught of traumatic experiences such as the first moment of diagnosis, telling our child, telling other family members, procedures, treatment decisions, and/or watching our child suffer emotionally or physically.

After a traumatic event, it is normal and expected to feel frightened, sad, anxious and even disconnected. Usually these symptoms fade with time and their impact on our health, emotional regulation, decision-making abilities and ability to manage our daily routine is minimal. For some people, however, the event remains painful and the memories and symptoms do not fade. This heightened anxiousness can then begin to affect the way we relate to the world and can decrease our quality of life. It is important for parents to pay attention to their own emotional health and monitor how their child’s diagnosis, illness, treatment, and prognosis is effecting their own ability to be a parent, a caretaker and a decision maker. Although there are often immediate action items and decisions to be made upon hearing a cancer diagnosis, it is still important for parents to take the time to explore and discuss their own fears and anxieties if they want to remain emotionally healthy and therefore most effective.

Sometimes parents who have experienced the trauma associated with their child’s cancer may start to show signs of extreme anxiety or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They may develop ongoing problems with relationships, self-esteem, anger management and even daily life functions. Symptoms of PTSD can develop immediately or can appear gradually over time. They are often triggered by something that is reminiscent of the original trauma such as an image, smell, sound or a situation. PTSD symptoms typically start within three months of a traumatic event; however, in some cases PTSD symptoms may not appear until years later.

Although no two people are alike, the symptoms of PTSD manifest themselves in three main ways: intrusive memories, avoidance and numbing, and increased anxiety or emotional arousal. First, PTSD sufferers may re-experience the traumatic event through upsetting memories, flashbacks, nightmares, feelings of intense distress and strong physical reactions such as rapid breathing, nausea, muscle tension, sweating and rapid heart rate. Secondly they may experience avoidance and numbing. For example, they may avoid places, thoughts or feelings that remind them of the trauma and/or they may not be able to remember important aspects of the event. The fall out associated with an attempt to avoid or numb can include avoiding activities they once enjoyed, feelings of hopelessness about the future, concentration and memory problems, alcohol or drug use, and/or difficulty maintaining close relationships. Finally, increased anxiety and emotional arousal are a third category of PTSD symptoms. Sufferers may have difficulty staying or falling asleep, find it hard to concentrate, feel jumpy and be easily startled, and/or exhibit irritability and outbursts of anger.

Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms can come and go. Parents may have more post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms when things are stressful in general, or when they run into reminders of what they and/or their child went through. For instance, they may feel panic each time they drive by the road that leads to their child’s doctor’s office. Or they may see a report on the news about a cancer survivor and feel overcome by memories of their own family’s fight with cancer.

It is normal to have a wide range of feelings and emotions after a traumatic event. Parents might experience fear and anxiety, a lack of focus, sadness, changes in how well they sleep or how much they eat, or crying spells that catch them off guard. They may have nightmares or be unable to stop thinking about the event. This doesn’t mean they have post-traumatic stress disorder. But if they have these disturbing thoughts and feelings for more than a month, if the symptoms are severe, or if they feel they are having trouble getting their life back under control, it may be time to talk to someone about getting help to prevent PTSD symptoms from getting worse.

Many forms of therapy have proven effective in the treatment of trauma. Three of the most effective are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Exposure Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). An individual therapist can help parents deal with the aftermath of a traumatic event by using these therapies to help them process the event, reduce fear and anxiety, and develop healthier ways to respond in situations that trigger the traumatic memories.

Carleen Newsome is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) at the Summit Counseling Center in Johns Creek, GA. 

 

CURE’s Partners in Caring Counseling Program helps address the unique psychological needs of families affected by childhood cancer. CURE families are eligible to receive up to 10 counseling sessions with licensed professionals at minimal cost. We also host free workshops and webinars several times throughout the year.

For more information about CURE’s Partners in Caring Counseling program, contact Karen McCarthy at 770-986-0035 ext. 26 or [email protected].

 

 

The Captain of a Rudderless Ship

Imagine yourself on the trip of a lifetime. You’ve taken to the high seas with an optimistic spirit, seafaring experience, and proper equipment. The boat underneath is a worthy vessel and the heading is secure. While the ocean is powerful and at times unpredictable, as captain, you carry with you the confidence to see the journey to its end.

But suddenly, dark clouds appear on the horizon and bring with them rising swells. Massive waves crash over the bow, one after another, as the violent storm turns the ocean from tranquil to cruel. Guided only by experience and bravado, you hold on until the storm around you subsides. When it is finally gone, a quick survey reveals massive damage to the ship – a broken mast and shattered rudder, leaving you adrift in the vast ocean you formerly thought was a friend.

How do you steer a rudderless ship?

While this story may sound fantastic, it is a picture lived out in families around the country. Our captain is the father whose comfortable ship has been rocked by the words, “your child has cancer.” That storm comes in suddenly and leaves devastation in its wake and the captain is left to try to steer his broken ship through uncharted waters. It is an impossible voyage.

Of course, all families and situations are different. But in a typical scenario, mom is consumed with the child’s treatment and the father must carry out his normal duties along with new chores she cannot manage – all while dealing with a huge rush of emotions the likes of which he has never experienced. Consider the balls a dad in treatment is forced to juggle:

Work – Of course he had to work before, but the stress of watching your child endure cancer treatment can weaken the best of employees. Concentration is nearly impossible when the mind is constantly drawn back to his sick child. Regardless of how he feels about his job, he has to persevere because insurance is a critical need during this medical storm.

Siblings – Dad must now make sure the other children don’t feel neglected.

• With mom occupied, he becomes the taxi driver for activities. If he never respected his wife’s ability to keep a schedule, he will never doubt it again after a few weeks of t-ball, piano, and ballet.
• He must brush up on algebra and sentence diagrams because the homework mantle has been passed.
• Food – kids eat a ton of it and often. Perhaps friends are bringing dinner, but lunchboxes must be packed so food must be bought and prepared.

Housework – Whatever the division of duties before cancer, dad’s role will probably increase with mom away. Some cancers mandate a near sterile environment to prevent infection when the patient is at home so the job of cleaning becomes even more of a challenge.

Finances – Family life is expensive on its own. Huge medical and related expenses can easily destroy any comfortable safety net.

Marriage – Maintaining a healthy marriage is difficult in the best of circumstances. Add the pressure of separation, financial strain, stress, lack of intimacy, and fear for the health of your child and you have a recipe for marital disaster.

Patient – A father is left questioning how best to support and encourage his sick child. Maybe he was that funny dad before, but there is little to laugh about during treatment. Whatever role he played, cancer will force him to modify it in some way.

With all of these in the air, some balls must hit the floor. The balls that often slip are friendships, fitness, hobbies, and activities because there simply isn’t room for them. If these are important, guilt over their neglect can creep into the dad’s mind.

And here is the strangest part – amidst the uncertainty of this storm, our once-confident captain will experience waves of emotion he has likely suppressed or managed all of his adult life. Tears previously unfamiliar to him will become his constant companion. Unmanageable fear and dread can hit at any time because the cancer has taken away that once-certain path and threatens one of his crew – a crew member entrusted to him… the dad… the man. The startling feeling of spinning completely out of control can rock the strongest of men.

I speak from experience as I have been in that boat. When my daughter was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, I thought I could safely steer my ship. Cancer was the wind that tossed my little rudderless ship at its whim and every time I confidently charted a course through the storm, cancer blew my plans aside. Losing control of your life and family is incredibly hard for a man – it was hard for me. It ran counter-intuitive to everything I grew up believing my role as the father of a family should be. Also foreign was the number of tears I cried. Right or wrong, I felt like less of a man.

On this Father’s Day, if you know someone who is trying to lead his family through childhood cancer or another family storm, understand that he isn’t as strong as he might appear. He is likely feeling much like I did – out of control and like less of a man. As much as you would want to, you cannot take the wheel and steer for a while – that job is his alone. But you can listen, give him a hug, volunteer for the extra work project, mow his lawn, or take his other kids to a ballgame. By easing those burdens, maybe you can help him regain some measure of control as he rides out the wind and choppy seas.

 

Collecting Memories

 

I love memories. When asked as a child what my favorite hobby was, I would always reply, “Collecting memories.” It isn’t just about the clicks, snips, and glue to make a photo album or scrapbook. It is about the exhilarating feeling when a memory is ignited by one of the five senses. Remembering sweeps the mind into a swirling whirlwind of titillating yet surreal emotions.

Mother’s Day sends my head reeling and my heart yearning. There are different stories I could focus on for this Mother’s Day reflection. I could reflect on how I spent my first Mother’s Day in a closet with Bo because of a tornado threat (funny story, actually). Or I could reflect upon the warmhearted welcome home Mother’s Day of 2010… the comforting feeling of finally coming home with Bo after a lengthy 8-month hospital stay. Or I could reflect upon my internal confliction of emotions I felt on my first Mother’s Day after Bo’s passing, which is also the day I found out I was pregnant with his sister, Heidi.

Although I never want these memories to fade or evade me, I do not wish to focus on them. And although reminiscing reminds me of what I’ve been through, my heart will only continue to heal as I move forward and live in the now – enveloped by both commemorative and present love. So for this Mother’s Day, I’d like to draw my attention to the very person who shaped me as the mother I am today. She is my rock; she is my pillar of strength; she is Catherine Matthews, my mother. She sacrifices her days, nights, weekends, finances, and even her own well-being for my own. She spent many sleepless nights before and after work to travel every single day to the hospital to visit Bo and me and to make sure our needs were met.

I try to put myself in my mother’s shoes. My mother watched as her daughter went through a heartbreaking and unimaginable tragedy… and there was nothing she could do to protect her little girl. My mother not only lost her grandchild but also saw her daughter’s heart breaking into pieces. As a mother myself, I look at my own daughter and imagine the pain. Recently, doctors discovered that my mom has a brain aneurysm and I find myself remembering all too well how each day we take for granted our mortality.

From my home to yours on this Mother’s Day, I encourage everyone to remember that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. Surround yourselves with those you love and collect memories.

Happy Mother’s Day,

Britney