Brenda is one of my very favorite Made By Mary stories. One day I was perusing the Mount Prospect Neighbors Group on Facebook and came across a woman, Brenda, that had reached out to the community asking for counselor referrals. She had been suffering with sadness after her sister’s passing a few months earlier. We, of course, replied to her post with words of encouragement but my mind was wondering how I could find out this woman’s address so that the Made By Mary team could deliver to her. Within hours and without prompting, someone contacted me through Facebook Messenger and provided us Brenda’s address and suggested we might visit her.
I reached out to our Made By Mary baking team and one member offered to make banana bread but didn’t have the time to deliver it. She ended up bringing the bread to my house on a Friday and first thing Saturday morning I set off to Brenda’s house. It was early. Likely too early to suggest someone would be happy to be getting a delivery from a stranger but, nonetheless, our Saturday was packed and I wanted to make sure we got to Brenda.
Brenda’s husband answered the door and looked at me quizzically when I suggested we had a delivery for Brenda. She came to the door in her robe and I started to explain that I was there on behalf of the team at Made By Mary and we were so sorry to hear about her sister’s passing. Upon reflection, I am not sure I made it all the way to the word “sister” before we were both in tears and hugging on her front porch. We parted ways and as I pulled out the Kleenex that is now perpetually being restocked in my car because of these deliveries, I knew that—beyond a doubt—going to Brenda’s was the best thing we could have done that day.
Brenda later reached out to me through the Made By Mary page and told me that she had written to Erin Ivory at WGN and told her about our services to the community. Erin sleuthed her way to finding us and, ultimately, WGN got our contact information from the Village of Mount Prospect. You can imagine our astonishment and excitement when a beloved WGN news anchor called us to express interest in covering the Made By Mary story. Erin asked if they could send a cameraman from WGN by the next day and if we had a delivery to make by chance.
We did in fact have a delivery to make! One of Arlington Height’s sweetest ladies is fighting a longer-than-anticipated battle against breast cancer. She and her kids were home on winter break so we wanted to send something that would be respectful of her dietary restrictions (low sugar). We ended up deciding on delivering homemade whipped cream made with our family’s favorite B&E’s Trees Bourbon Barrel Aged maple syrup (discovered on a family vacation this summer) and organic berries. It was mind-blowing to have a WGN cameraman (from Mount Prospect by the way), in our kitchen and then following us on a delivery.
Made By Mary on WGN TV
segment is set to air on Thursday, January 17th, 2019 during the 4:00 p.m. news hour and then again during the 6:00 p.m. news hour. Tune in!
Thank you to WGN for helping us expand the message and mission of Made By Mary and, even more importantly, thank you to Brenda and the recipient of our filmed delivery for continuing the messages of kindness in the community.