Heart Walk: Why I'm all in
April 4, 2017
By Lael Oldmixon
Executive director, UA College Savings Program
I became passionate about the American Heart Association several years ago, but it got real when my aunt had a stroke in 2015. Over the course of the year following her stroke, she improved and had made a strong recovery. According to friends and family, her post-stroke personality and activity was beginning to seem a lot more like her pre-stroke activity. Her energy was returning and she was looking better than ever. Her passing came as an unexpected shock to our family. Doesn't that seem to be the way it always goes with heart disease and stroke?
Aunt Susan was a champion for health and wellness in her decades as a nurse and health educator in Shreveport, Louisiana. She was a great person who had an amazing sense of humor and a loving community of family and friends.
I support the American Heart Association because saying goodbye to Aunt Susan felt so unfair and unnecessary. She left behind a son, a daughter-in-law, grandchildren, a sister and many friends and family who were not prepared to say goodbye to this beautiful loved one. I'm a supporter because the association's work benefits lifesaving research conducted at this university and many others nationwide. I'm walking on May 13 to join up with thousands of other Fairbanksans to recognize that it's not an outside problem, it's right here among us at UAF, in Alaska and among our people.
Will you walk with me?