From Mary's daughter, Aimee:
In May 2015, Mary Hage, an otherwise healthy woman, got sick. For almost two months she saw countless doctors, underwent numerous tests and waited in fear of what the answer could be. In July 2015, she got her answer, Acute Myeloid Leukemia. AML took away her ability to walk and her ability to fully use her hands. She endured countless days in the hospital, intensive chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. She made it through her first one hundred days post-transplant and we celebrated with one hundred flowers on her one hundredth day. A matter of days later a bone marrow biopsy revealed that her cancer had returned. AML took her life on May 20, 2016 but it never took away her ability to love, and Mary knew how to love.
Mary lived her life with love. She was a loving wife and a devoted mother. She loved to cook and to garden. She loved to laugh. She loved to have fun. She loved her life. Even in the face of cancer she never lost her ability to love. Love was the reason she fought. Mary loved life so much that she didn’t want to miss a thing.
Mary’s love is an inspiration. Life is meant to be lived. Blood cancer took Mary’s life but her love lives on. Mary was my mother and I will always be her daughter. She is my hero. She can’t be here to hug her grandson and tell him she loves him, but I can, and I do every day. She can’t take care of her garden anymore, but I can. She can’t walk the grounds of the home she loved so much, but I can. She can’t laugh about the tattoo she got when she turned 62, but I can. She can’t fight blood cancer anymore, but I can. I think about my mom every single day and I try to live my life the way she did. She taught me how to love and she showed me how strong love can be in the face of fear. We all have the ability to love and love can push us toward a cure.