On 10.21.2014, there were to be no more lunches, no more drives to school, no more homework, no more singing You Are My Sunshine in the mornings. That day, my dad came to our school to tell us the news. “Your mom is no longer here.” After an 11 year on-and-off battle with breast cancer, my dad woke up at Seton Hospital in Austin, his wife, my mom, Maureen, was no longer breathing. This is why I am launching #pinkkids. I love my mom. I miss my mom.”
The goal of #pinkkids is to change our future as mothers in the fight with cancer by acting together now as kids. However, #pinkkids is not just about changing the future but changing the present and creating offline and online spaces where the children of moms with breast cancer can connect and not feel alone.
I tell the story of #pinkkids in a More Than Pink Podcast with Susan G. Komen Greater Central and East Texas’ Executive Director, Suzanne Stone, released on my mom and dad’s wedding anniversary this past summer, July 14, 2018.