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Cherie Ann Kennedy

Cherie Ann Kennedy
Cherie Ann Kennedy

In memory of my mom 7/13/50-9/23

Mom was a tough lady. She was a go getter who talked to anyone she met. She often would ask complete strangers, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" And then listen intently as they told her. She was interested in others, genuinely interested and she attracted friends like no one I have ever met. She raised my brother Brent and I alone while working full time. She went back to college when I was in high school. She was there for every important event in our lives. Even at 67 she was still working, this time as back room coordinator which meant she unloaded the trucks and put the merchandise out to be delivered to the floor. She hurt her knee at work, had surgery, and went back to work. She was a powerhouse who was always in motion. In 2017 we started to notice that something strange was going on with her but the doctors did not know what it was as we could not put our finger on exactly what it was. In May of 2018 we took her to Asheville to our son's college graduation. While there with us, we noticed that she kept repeating herself and forgeting things that she had just said or heard. About a month after that, I got a call from the police telling me that she was acting strangely. She was trying to call me from her remote control and told the police that she had been talking to a recently deceased neighbor. At her doctor's urging, I took her to the hospital. We thought we were dealing with dementia or alheizmers. A routine brain MRI on admission found masses in her brain. We would later find out this was glioblastoma, stage 4. For the next 3 months we watched her go from an independent woman to a shell of herself who required full time care. She passed on 9/23/18 while in hospice at my aunt's house. She was not only my mom, but my best friend and I miss her terribly. I hope that someday a cure can be found so that no other family has to lose someone they love to this horrible cancer.

 

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