ALS And Mothers' Day - Are We Missing An Opportunity?

ALS can take a lot of the fun out of Mothers' Day.  

There are families whose mothers are dealing with ALS today, and it's a handful.  There are orphans (some young and some old) who are encountering their first Mothers' Days after having buried their mothers who died from ALS (but probably did not succumb to it).  

We all try to make the best of a painful situation.

But, wait... are we really making the best of it?

Every year right around Mothers' Day, the ALS Association holds its advocacy conference in Washington and there is an advocacy day when concerned citizens swarm on Capitol Hill to get some attention for this nasty and largely ignored disease.

Perhaps it's time to mobilize the daughters and sons who have lost their moms.   What better day is there to have a few thousand people remember their mothers lost to ALS than by becoming active advocates on Capitol Hill?  After moms die from ALS we can't order Proflowers and we can't take them out to dinner at terribly crowded restaurants, but we can sure remember the unfinished business of ALS that stole our mothers and continues to make ALS orphans every day.

We need to keep celebrating Mothers' Day for all mothers lost to ALS by doing some good for the cause.  ALS daughters and sons need to show up and be heard.  Perhaps with a little encouragement from all of the ALS not-for-profits, Mothers' Day in DC will be identified with those thousands of people whose numbers grow every year until ALS is cured.  

Thousands and thousands of us can fight back and remember our mothers and make some good come from a holiday that can sting after a visit from ALS.