Rachel (CJ’s mom) and I have been best friends since high school.

Like most teenage girls, we day dreamed about our perfect lives and all of the things we would do together as we got older. We both got married and were in each other’s bridal parties and we got to know and love one another’s spouses (luckily both embraced all of our inside jokes). It was only natural that we would both get pregnant with our first kids around the same time. Charlotte Jennie was born almost 6 months to the day earlier than my son, Ethan. As CJ would hit a milestone, I knew that in a few months, Ethan would be there too.

One of my favorite memories of Charlotte was when she was at Ethan’s first birthday party and was singing the entire alphabet song at only 18 months old! Unfortunately when CJ got sick, we lived over 700 miles apart and there was not much I could do to help. I tried to be supportive in the ways I could be, but honestly there was no way for me to truly understand what they were going through. When they came to Florida for CJ’s Make a Wish trip we made sure we helped to make everything as easy as possible for them, but still I felt like I should be doing more. After CJ’s death and the creation of the CJ’s Thumbs Up Foundation, giving back became easier.

I knew that by supporting their foundation, I was supporting Rachel and Roger and sweet CJ’s legacy, as well as helping countless other families in similar situations. As soon as the Foundation was up and running, we began donating twice a year, on the anniversary of CJ’s passing and on her birthday. With every single milestone that my son reaches, from finishing kindergarten, to graduating high school, to moving away to college, I think of Charlotte and how she would have been just 6 months ahead of him. I would like to think that she is still guiding him in some way and that donations to CJSTUF can help other kids reach those same milestones.