Mary Helen St. John Morris

07/07/1946 — 03/02/2012

In July 2011, my mom noticed she had a tumor-like thing on the right side of her back. So she went to the doctor to see what it was. They did a biopsy on it, and it came back as melanoma. So she decided to have surgery done. The doctor came out from surgery and told me that he got it all. So I was very excited and thought nothing else about it. The doctor never once said that my mom needed chemotherapy to me or my family members, so my mom went home after surgery and then for 3 months, she couldn’t hold any water, food, etc, down. So this doctor decided to put her back in the hospital (meantime, understand that the tumor went from a golf-ball size to 17 inches in length, 12 inches wide, and about 2 inches above skin level). This is when I find out that my precious mom had Stage IV melanoma, and they told me she wouldn’t live 2 months.

Sure enough, she died on March 2, 2012. I lost everything … who I was and what I was. My family, especially my grandbabies, got me back on track. I’m still where I can’t handle seeing her stuff, but I’m getting there. She is the main reason I want to do whatever I can do to prevent anyone from going through what my family and I have been through.

My mom is my hero, she is my angel. I love and miss her so much. This is my story of my beautiful mom …

Michelle Williams, daughter