We know this time of year around Mother’s Day can bring a mix of emotions—joy, grief, gratitude, and longing for some of you. However you’re holding that space, we want you to know you’re not alone. We’re thinking of you too.
This Mother’s Day, we’re honoring three mothers from three different states, each with the same end-of-life wish, and three different outcomes.
In Wisconsin, Julie Foertsch remembers her mother, Linda, as adventurous and fiercely independent—a former nurse who loved baseball, the Tour de France, and the open road. When Linda was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, she said simply, “I’m a retired nurse. I know too much.”
In California, Angela Langlands’ mother, Annette, was an interior designer who made beauty feel like something everyone deserved. She gave earrings, scarves, and lipstick to friends and strangers. In Annette’s final hours with terminal colon cancer, her last words were, “And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
In North Carolina, Holly H. is a mother of two daughters living with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. After watching her own mother die from glioblastoma, she knows she wants a different experience for herself. Holly says, “No one knows what choice they would make until they’re the one staring down a terminal, painful diagnosis in their 40s, and living through it.”
Three mothers. Three states. One shared truth: a love of life, and the wish to live fully, on their own terms, until the very end. We continue to elevate and share these stories because they reflect what’s at stake—and why your support matters.
In Wisconsin, where there is no Death with Dignity law, Linda didn’t get the peaceful end of life she researched and wanted. In California, where the law has been in place since 2016, Annette was able to die as she wished—surrounded by loved ones, each wearing one of her colorful scarves. And in North Carolina, where there is also no aid-in-dying law, Holly is still fighting—for her future, and the right to choose how her story ends.
Every maternal figure deserves the freedom to make their own end-of-life decisions.
This Mother’s Day, make a donation in honor of someone you love. Together, we can advance Death with Dignity laws, so no family is left without options when it matters most. Donate today.
