On October 15, 2009, my best friend Sam, or as I called her, S.M. passed away, after a lifelong battle with a rare blood disorder: Fanconi Anemia. The last ten years have sucked. Yes, a lot of amazing things have happened in my personal life- My brother's band came together, and brought Ryan and myself closer together, I graduated high school, I figured out what I want to do with my life (more on that next week), I started writing this blog, I sing in the choir at church, and most notably I turned some of my biggest childhood “enemies” into people who I consider my sisters. But all that joy can feel so incomplete because she should be standing with me through everything. I can't even begin to fathom however, how much worse it is for her family.
In the wake of S.M’s death her mom, Mrs. (Nikki) McCarthy, started the nonprofit organization called Sam's Fans that raises money for music and art therapy in Ohio hospitals. Now Nikki had made friends with a woman named Miranda because their kids went to the same school. Miranda owns a fashion boutique called “Thread” with two locations in the central Ohio area. As Sams fans was just beginning, Miranda decided to help. Thread hosted a fashion show called A Thread of Hope and all the proceeds would go to Sam's Fans.
Last Thursday was 5th Thread of Hope. I started going to this event the second year they had it, and that year I knew most of the people there. The 3rd year I lied and told myself that I knew all the people there to make myself feel better about my social skills, and last year I admitted I didn't know everyone. This year there were so many people in attendance it made me glad I'm not claustrophobic.
Nikki has given me the title of “unofficial cameraman” because I'm always taking pictures/videos at events and making little slideshows. It even got to the point that when I graduated she and her husband Mr. (Dan) McCarthy bought me a GoPro. Right before the fashion show started, Nikki and Miranda got up on stage. They introduced a music therapist named Sara who had bone cancer as a child. I crawled to the front of the stage and started to video.
Sara talked about Sara talked about her experience with music in her life, how it helped her through, how it helped her through her battle with bone cancer, how she became a music therapist, the importance of music therapy (and a brief description of how it works) and how Sam's Fans helps her do her job. At the end of her speech, she said something that I think everyone who knows Nikki has thought at one point or another: “... I just want to take this time to honor Nikki. I consider her one of my heroes because she's lived through every mother's worst nightmare and has really taken that pain, and that opportunity to channel it into growth and healing for hundreds of other families.”
I can’t put that into better words, but I can thank Nikki. She hasn't brought healing just to those families who are going through something so terrible with their own children, she's brought it to everyone who ever met her daughter. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to her about a problem that I'm having as a result of losing S.M. and she doesn't say, “Hey I’m her mom, do you think I don’t deal with pain a thousand times over every day! GET OVER YOURSELF!” Instead, she just looks at me smiles and tells me that it's going to be okay. Thank you so much, Nikki, for all that you do!
I'm going to end this blog with an exciting announcement. Over the course of the five years that Thread of Hope has been an event, they have raised half a million dollars!!!! So yeah, I'm just going to leave that there…
Have a Greattastic day!
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
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