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I’ve had several titles in my life: sister, daughter, mother, wife, teacher, and coach, to name a few. But the latest one isn’t something I think I’ll ever get used to: bereaved parent. I learned that there is a Bereaved Mother’s Day every year on the first Sunday in…

I’ve always been a shutterbug, someone who loves to capture moments with a camera. When I had my firstborn, Cammy, and bought my first smartphone in the spring of 2009, documenting her was only natural. I began taking weekly and monthly photos of her to track her growth. When…

Shortly after our daughter Cammy passed away on Dec. 13 due to complications of Rett syndrome, we were approached by Joe Kish, the assistant principal at Franklin Middle School, our youngest daughter Ryan’s school in Wheaton, Illinois. He asked about designating Cammy Can, the organization we created to…

Since my daughter Cammy passed away in December due to complications of Rett syndrome, I’ve been experiencing a lot of firsts without her. The holidays hit hard. We had to navigate our first Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, my husband Billy’s birthday, and our younger daughter Ryan’s…

Our local hospital, Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Illinois, offers patients and caregivers the opportunity to nominate a nurse for a Daisy Award. It’s a way to recognize the tremendous and extraordinary care a nurse has provided. I wish I knew the statistics about the number…

March 10, 2023, was the last time we would ever celebrate our late daughter Cammy‘s birthday with her. In my heart, I knew it would be, as complications of Rett syndrome were impacting her more and more. Cammy needed to be on supplementary oxygen at night, her profound…

Last fall, I purchased four tickets to see the hit musical “Hamilton” in Chicago in last December. My husband, Bill, and our youngest daughter, Ryan, had already seen the show in New York, but were happy to see it again with our oldest daughter, Cammy, and me. We…

For 14 years, we had known this day would come, but we couldn’t possibly have fully prepared for it. On Dec. 13, 2023, our beautiful daughter Cammy put her superhero cape on one last time. Cammy continued teaching us important lessons right to the very end, as she displayed…

I never imagined we’d be in the hospital for a second consecutive holiday, but we were. Our oldest daughter, Cammy, was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit the day before Halloween. Now we’ve spent Thanksgiving in the hospital, too. But despite being here for a month, we…

On Oct. 29, Cammy, our 14-year-old daughter with Rett syndrome, went to bed with a cold. She was fatigued, had glassy eyes and mucus in her chest, and was coughing a little. We checked on her a few times during the night, but by 5 a.m., we knew…