My beautiful Aunt Mia

My Aunt Maria is an amazing woman. She was a stay-at-home mom while her kids were in grade school (she did work PT for the Cincinnati Marlins Swim Team). When her youngest was in junior high, she decided that she wanted to go back to college and pursue her dream of becoming an elementary school teacher.

Long story short: boy did she ever. She worked so hard, and devoted so much of herself to learning how to be a great teacher, that she earned the title of Valedictorian at Xavier University. However, as the humble person that she is, she turned it down so that someone "college-age" could have the title and give the speech.

She teaches at Elda Elementary School in Ross, Ohio. The reason that I write about her starts here. There have been 2 students and 1 teacher diagnosed with brain cancer in the Ross School District in the last year.

Maria is that teacher.

She has glioblastoma. Don't Google, Bing or Yahoo! it. It's not pretty. This type of cancer usually affects older (i.e. eligible for AARP) adults. Maria is anything but. She is in her mid-fourties and is in excellent shape and health (other than the pesky brain cancer thing).

The amazing part is her faith. She is, without a doubt, one of the most Jesus-trusting individuals that I have ever met. She, like I, attends Vineyard Community Church in Springdale, Ohio. She works in Connections helping new attendees get aquainted with our church and with Jesus. She and her husband have counciled couples preparing for marriage for over 15 years. He's a carpenter with a beard...sound familiar?

Maria looks at her situation this way: "God is using me to help other people that struggle with this disease. I am healthy and the doctors can see that anything affecting me is coming directly from the tumors. While you're at it, while not use me to find the cure...and cure me, Lord?"

Not "my life is over." Not "why me?" Only "Use me God. Use me Lord."

Here is her CaringBridge page: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mariameyer. Read it and be inspired. However this plays itself out, I'm going to have it made into a book.

In the meantime, I think that I'm going to create another blog: Letters For Mia. It's going to be a collection of my writings to her. It's hard sometimes to tell someone to their face how much they mean to you, but I've never had that problem with Maria. I just figured I share it with the world; maybe someone else can find inspiration from it. Others may end up contributing to it. We'll see.