The HeartWalk 2010

Hey, friends and family. I need your help!

As many of you know, one of my very best friends lost her mother three years ago due to undetected heart disease. Heather's mom, Miss Robbie, was a sort of second mother to me. Our moms taught at the same elementary school, which is how Heather and I met. Of course, story goes that we did NOT like each other. I thought she was too high-maintenance, and I'm sure she thought I had crawled out of the sticks. (Turns out we were both right.)

My mom and Robbie, 2003
Buddies

We ended up playing on the same softball team for years and years, went through all those horrible boy dramas together, and we survived the ultimate challenge together: braces. Miss Robbie was such a wonderful mother, friend, and softball team-mother. She always had snacks ready for us, helped Roy pick out cute uniforms - you know, middle school girls gotta look hot when they slide into 2nd base (or crouch behind home plate, as I did!)

I went on family vacations with Robbie, Roy and Heather. I did chores for months before to earn spending money. And I've wondered as I've gotten older, just how many times Robbie let me spend that money, because as I look back at it, that $30 sure went far...

I hardly have a middle or high school memory without Heather and her mother in it. I was the matron of honor in Heather's wedding three years ago. A very large matron of honor, at that. I was three weeks away from delivering Andrew! You can't get much more matronly than that!And sadly, Robbie passed away before she ever got to meet that baby she loved before she knew. In fact, the day we went dress shopping for bridesmaid's dresses for Heather's wedding, I distinctly remember Robbie saying that a particular dress "comes in a maternity style, too, you never know!" A few weeks later I was pregnant....

Miss Robbie loving on Andrew-in-utero

Miss Robbie had been in great shape, she was eating well, walking, gardening, and was really lookin' good. She taught elementary school and loved her kids. One day in June 2007, Robbie started having back pains, and chalked it up to bending over her desk at school. Later, she went for a massage, thinking it would help. One June 13, 2007, Robbie had a massive heart attack that took her life. She had no outward signs of heart disease. All of her doctors were astounded to learn that her arteries were terribly blocked.



Every September since Robbie died Heather, her family, and friends have participated in the HeartWalk in Charlotte, NC. We're called Team Beachcombers, because Robbie was very much at home at the beach. We spend months collecting donations that go to the American Heart Association. This money helps fund research, awareness, and education for heart disease, so that one day heart disease will be more easily prevented and detected.

Miss Robbie doing, no, LEADING the chicken dance!

I ask for your help now in sponsoring Team Beachcombers for this year's HeartWalk. Help us raise money to help save lives. All donations are tax-deductible, and can be made on the HeartWalk's secure donation site. If you'd rather, you can mail cash or check donations right to me and I will personally deliver them to the HeartWalk in Charlotte on September 25th.

If you feel led to give, please click HERE