[chrisy]

I, too will always remember Mary Ann as a woman with fierce determination.

I shared a room with her in San Antonio one year, and every night she would trot out her suitcase full of carefully chosen and prioritized medications and supplement while regaling me with stories of her battles. Not just battles to survive, but those to claim her right to live as she wanted, and to achieve what she set out to do. Maryanne was not a woman one could say no to.

Steph, seeing her kids grow up and sending them into adulthood was indeed her highest goal - I'll never forget her telling me how "they" (the powers that be) wouldn't allow her to be there at a significant life event (it might have been her son's graduation) because she was so ill.

But she was there anyway, her skin literally GREEN...and then when she was good and ready, she went back to the hospital to let them deal with that.

Rest well, my friend - you've earned it.