When you lose your critical lifeline at age five you cannot escape some brand of heartache. It impacts everything you do, your relationships, your health, and your ability to function in the world. As would be true for most children, my lifeline was my mom and any type of normal life trajectory halted when I lost her on a cold February day in Madison, South Dakota. My heartache has lasted for years.
As I grew up, my desire for that “mom” connection bubbled up to the surface and I found myself reaching out to women all over the world to connect on a truly human level. As I found myself reaching out to moms facing acute life circumstances, who knew I would be next to face another tragedy?
As I grew up, my desire for that “mom” connection bubbled up to the surface and I found myself reaching out to women all over the world to connect on a truly human level.
I was a 40-year-old single mom of three young boys when I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer and then, three weeks later my seven-year-old son was rushed to the hospital diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes. This caused me to take a sacred pause that lasted two years and asked myself, “What does this really feel like now that I am one of the moms that needs help?”
I craved someone to come into my home and help me clean up what felt like the aftermath of a tornado. I needed love, compassion, organization, nourishment, and the feeling of my burden being lifted, if only for a moment.
That’s how Mother’s Grace charity was born. We started Mother’s Grace with two thousand dollars in the bank and focused on reaching out to moms that had experienced tragedy in the form of illness, natural disaster, or some acute and disabling loss. Mother’s Grace is now being incorporated into many national health systems and we are partnering with amazing organizations all over the world to help in very unique ways.
The following list was our “to do” items as we began embracing each precious woman:
- Be passionate, vulnerable, start to feel each need, get excited about helping without an agenda.
- Be honest, dig deep, face your fear, take a risk, and share your plan with a trusted group. I was too afraid to tell people about the project in person at first so I would send emails at midnight and look for their responses the next day (obsessively checking my email).
- Get a few trusted people on board that share your passion. Seek out people with special skills that can fill the gaps, whatever your organization, project, or business needs. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle looking for the right fit…reliable, strong women with a pure agenda.
- Get busy telling your personal story over and over and over again until it resonates and people get it. I must have gotten up 100 times in front of groups to tell my story and they still wanted to hear it again. This lends passion and compassion to your mission
- Hold an event that appeals to women - fun not boring, an intriguing speaker, great food, wine, shopping, create a buzz - make people want to join the excitement.
- Invite local vendors, businesses and engage the community, they will then help you spread enthusiasm.
- Take any support you can get no matter how small or different. We worked with salons, restaurants, car dealerships, and many many other small businesses that wanted to get their brand out as well. We collaborated, supported, and believed in each other’s mission
- Get the media involved then write about it. All you have to do is write a compelling press release and you are off. Get followers on social media and spread the message. Mix it up and invite others to speak on your behalf. Create and share success stories no matter how small.
What started with a small garage sale that garnered $1800, Mother’s Grace turned into a five million dollar organization with an international reach, and has helped over 6000 women...an answer to prayer! We went from begging 50 women to come to our initial “telling of our story” to a waiting list at our 500 plus women annual event. It has been purely organic by following the above steps.
Many of the women I’ve met through the charity have inspired me deeply. Several of them have turned her own immense suffering and grief into something bigger for others. Everything they do may turn out to be the one thing that protects their child, and yours, from gun violence, cancer, addiction, and loss. They are change agents and you can be too. You can do it in very small meaningful ways and you can start with just an act of kindness.
