Help Mari’s family return her and Josie to Ireland

We, the children of Mari Steed (Kerry, Jessica, and Alex), have a big ask. We appreciate you reading on.

As some of you may know, Mom took early retirement and moved to Cleveland in April to help me (Jessica) through a crisis and take care of her newest grandson. The fallout and ongoing issues had a huge impact on our family, both financially and emotionally, especially as a new mom. Yet my own mom showed up without hesitation to guide and support me through one of the worst periods in my life.

Several weeks ago, after officially moving her house from Richmond, Mom started showing signs pointing toward liver issues. After over a week in the hospital, she was officially diagnosed with stage IV liver cancer.

Complicating matters is the fact that when Mom retired, she lost her work insurance. And because she won’t be 65 until next April, she can’t make an application for Medicare until December-January.

We are exploring every option to get the best care for Mom, clinical trials, new therapies, etc. But it’s overwhelming, as you can imagine. We’ve also decided to look for a rental to move temporarily to Philadelphia (where Alex and Kerry live), so Mom will have the full support of family.

So many of you know Mom and her work with both Justice for Magdalenes Research and Adoption Rights Alliance. She’s been a fierce advocate fighting for justice and rights. She’s helped bring hundreds of Irish families together with their lost loved ones who, like Mom, were trafficked to the US.

She’s been an advocate, a friend, a beacon, lived her life to help others, and wouldn’t hesitate to bring support to whoever needed it.

Should anything raised exceed what’s necessary to cover the medical/moving aspect, it will go toward Mom’s number one bucket list wish: to go back to Ireland.

As we said, this is a big ask in tight times. But we deeply appreciate anything you can spare and your generosity. Mom is special and means the world to us. If she impacted your life, as she has ours, please help us make her journey as amazing as she is.

Thank you.