My mom has always been the strongest person I know. She’s the type of woman who loves life, is adventurous, and treats everyone she meets with kindness and compassion. She certainly has the gift of gab and is the most selfless person I know. She loves helping others and will do it in the blink of an eye. She has been me and my brother’s rock as long as we have been born, always giving us everything she could, even when life tested her in the hardest ways and she felt like giving up… she never did. It’s just not in her.

Before me and my brother (Samuel) were born, with my mom being so active, she would have occasional breathing issues and swelling. But it wasn’t until 2016 that a genetic diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was made, where the heart muscle becomes dangerously thick and struggles to pump blood.

So the heart journey began.

She had open-heart surgery shortly after. Recently (July 2023), she had to get a pacemaker and a defibrillator placed on her heart after having a heart attack. She then had an ablation in April of last year. But recently she faced something we knew was going to happen but just didn’t know when—a heart transplant.

She was put on the heart transplant list almost 2 years ago. Since then, watching her fight through all of this has been heartbreaking, but yet motivational and moving. Not once has she ever lost her strength or her spirit. Now, as our mom recovers, we want her to focus on healing and not on the heavy financial burden of medical bills and care.

Any help—whether it’s donating or simply sharing—means the world to us. My mom deserves to heal and continue being the beautiful, loving person who has given so much to this world and everyone around her. Thank you all so much for loving and caring for our mom. You don’t know how much it means to us!