In 2022, shortly after my parents separated, my mom decided to pack up her life in LA and move to Manhattan to be closer to me and my two sisters. She got a job at Columbia, an apartment on the Upper West Side, and the chance to reconnect with friends she made while living here in her 20s. She also enrolled at Columbia a year later to earn the Bachelor’s degree she never got and is currently taking classes before and after work in pursuit of a major in creative writing. She wants to eventually publish a collection of essays that, knowing her, will end up a best-seller, and as I am now writing this, I’m realizing I should probably hate being the daughter of such an overachiever.
Because if all of that wasn’t enough (!), my mom moved to the city just a few months before her 60th birthday and decided to run the NYC marathon to celebrate. To do so, she got involved with Every Mother Counts, a nonprofit dedicated to making pregnancy and childbirth safe for all mothers, and I’m thrilled to be running the marathon with the same charity this fall.
This organization means a lot to me not only because of the significance it holds in my mom’s life, but also because of the vital work they’re doing to promote a longstanding, but often overlooked, issue. The United States has a maternal mortality rate far greater than that of every other high-income country, and women – especially Black and indigenous mothers – are more likely to die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth today than they were a generation ago. My mom is hands-down the coolest, most resilient person I know, and I am beyond grateful for the quality maternal support she received more than 20 years ago. It’s a privilege not granted to everyone, and Every Mother Counts is hoping to fix that through policy change, education, and the expansion of care. I’m kindly asking (begging?) you to help me help them in that mission.
Thank you so much in advance for any contribution and come out on November 3rd to watch me absolutely heave my way through 26.2 miles!
