Mother's Day is just around the corner. A day when we honor those who gave us life. But this May 9th there will be no lunch outing, no special flowers or any handwritten cards from grandkids. Instead, we'll just have our memories. Nellie Napier, our mother, grandmother and great grandmother is no longer with us, all because she ate peanut butter, a food she liked and thought was good for her. To know her was to love her.  We are missing a very special part of our family.

December 22, 2008 we celebrated her 80th birthday, never thinking we would not be together again as a family. January 9th, 2009 she was admitted to the hospital. The doctors told us she had a very severe case of salmonella which had entered her blood stream, became sepsis and was attacking her organs. She was in so much pain that the morphine they were giving her, did not phase the pain she was enduring. Watching her cringe in pain and trying to speak to us was heartbreaking, and something we will never forget. She could no longer breathe on her own and was put on a respirator, her kidneys had shut down and she had a mild stroke which affected her ability to swallow. We had to watch helplessly as the salmonella took her from us on January 26, 2009. We stayed by her side until the end, loving her and knowing that she loved us, and yet there was nothing we could do.

Our family will never forget this wonderful woman. We have made it our mission to honor her daily with our work for safer food. We have been to DC as a family on many occasions. We’ve done countless press interviews and been on TV, in newspapers, and on the web. All in her memory. We don’t want anyone else to have to suffer the way she did.

This Mother's Day we are asking for donations in Nellie’s name to benefit S.T.O.P.- Safe Tables Our Priority, the organization that has been by our side every step of the way. They work to prevent illness and disease from food and fight to make sure no one has to be afraid to eat.

-The Napier Family