Fall is in full swing and I could not be happier. But as October comes to a close, I can’t help but reflect on this month because it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. While some may be cognizant of this simply from the pink attire football teams deck themselves out in, others might be personally attached to this month for more than just the colorful leaves. While I have written articles before about my mother’s experience with Breast Cancer and the effect it had on our family, my focus today is simply on her. My mother. Because this month focuses on Breast Cancer Awareness and for me, that means being aware of the strongest, most influential, and beautiful woman I have had the pleasure of knowing, my mother.

Wife, mother, sister, friend, survivor. While all of these words can be used to define my mother, I feel like no single word can be used to define her. She is more than all of these things. She is a unique and wonderful person who before being a mother to me, was defined as many other things and still is.

Some of the earliest memories I have of my mother are not moments that are crazy or unique but moments of everyday life. Like grocery shopping with her, watching her get ready for dinner with my father, or sewing something beautiful. All of these moments are significant because they are the moments I still love and the time I get to spend with her. To me, they are the most cherished moments because back then and still today I remember thinking, “wow, I want to be just like my mother when I grow up”. Not because of the wonderful clothes she had, or the makeup she wore, but because of whom she was as a person.

So while it might seem silly, this is what struck me most when my mother had cancer. I saw this strong independent woman, sick and confined to a bed some days, tired from radiation and medication and unhappy because she was not able to do the things she loved. Not able to take care of others. But never, not once, did it change the person she was.

My mother is the strongest person I know because she never viewed her cancer for how it affected her, but while in the middle of treatment would worry about my father, my sister, my brothers and me. She is selfless, sassy and yes – she is a survivor, but she is so much more than that. Breast Cancer does not define my mother but was a part of her life she conquered and overcame.

So this month I challenge you to think of the people in your life affected by Breast Cancer and think of them as more than just a survivor because they are so much more than this disease.

She showed me that you don’t have to define yourself by what happens to you, but how you handle it. I still value the time I get to spend with my mother, but the sweetest moments for me are the ones spent drinking coffee in the morning chatting, when I get to look at her and think, “wow, I want to be just like her when I grow up”.