'Flowers 4 MS'

She stayed with me in the hospital and then at home and she did all of those things that a friend knows to do without having to be asked to.
She knew that nutrition is very important to me and she knew that taking care of someone requires a lot of work, patience and humor.
In fact, she made me laugh plenty of times and she was there to help with the big things as well as with the small ones.
Her gesture and her presence during such a difficult and scary period of my life strengthened our friendship even more and it helped me tremendously.
Now, with the help of a walker and then with the help of a cane, I tried my best to keep on moving and I worked hard on making myself strong again.

When she had to go back home and back to work, I returned to being a little more mobile and I was able to go back to my fundraising efforts, while still going to physical therapy three times a week.
The person that became so special in my life was there for me all along with her prayers and messages and a couple of weeks after that, she started sending me many of the photos that she took when we were together at the Botanical Garden and many more that she had taken on other occasions.
She told me to use them to raise money for MS research and in doing so she gave me the ultimate gift once again: the gift of giving.

While I was feeling scared, still very much concerned about my future with MS and while I was still trying to give up on the cane and get back to walking as normal as possible (I was then wearing a foot brace) I decided to do what she suggested and to work on it.
The campaign was called Flowers 4 MS and the logo was created using one of my photos, the one with the flowers and the butterfly that I had taken in my garden over the summer.
I chose to print the cards at Staples and with the help of my husband Keith, the cards were printed and they were finally ready to be presented to others.
Wanting to add my own pictures to the project, I started learning how to use the computer program that she has sent me some time before and I started creating my own cards which were added to the others later on.
This was the end of September, 2007.

On October third, I went to Johns Hopkins Hospital to see Dr. Greenberg, a nuerologist that I chose for a second opinion on my disease. While down there, I shared the project with Kim and Chitra, two nice women that I met during my visit, and in a matter of days, the Flowers 4 MS campaign was on the Johns Hopkins Hospital website and a few months later, was also put in the Project Restore newsletter.

Flowers 4 MS was finally born.