Editor’s Note: We’re starting a new Personal Story series today. Today’s story is from Maggie Bags’ national sales manager, Julie Stover. Julie shared with us a story about when she first started working here and her mother’s cancer diagnosis and journey.

I held my mother’s hand as she took her last breath. Words cannot express what an honor it is to be able to say that.

My mother was a healthy vivacious woman when I received a call from TN Webbing telling me they wanted to start a handbag line made from seatbelts. When I took the job as National Sales Manager, my mom was excited, as was I, about all the possibilities. As I dove in and Maggie Bags took off, my mom was planning her retirement that was to be filled with relaxation, time with grandchildren and travel. Instead, two weeks after she turned in her notice at work, she found out she had cancer. Primary peritoneal cancer, which is treated like ovarian cancer, soon turned her “relaxing” retirement into one filled with chemotherapy, tests and doctors visits.

My mother had always been my rock, rushing the two hours drive to be with me and my daughters at a moment’s notice whenever I needed her. Now it was my turn and I could not let her down. I went to my supervisor at Maggie Bags and before I could even ask he said, “Go be with your mom. We will work it out.” What followed is a blur of three years of running back and forth, making sales calls from my mom’s bedside, sending emails to reps from the chemo room, working in the office until three on Monday and not coming back in until Friday. But I got to be there when the chemo room almost gave her the wrong dosage of chemo and I stopped them; there to hold ice packs on her ankles and wrists to try to keep her palms and feet from blistering; there for every surgery; there for every PET scan; there for every heartbreaking result meeting with the doctors.

I owe a lot to Maggie Bags. It has been two years since my mom passed away and now I have other honors afforded to me by Maggie Bags. I get to be there when we donate both handbags and funds to Casting For Recovery. Casting for Recovery gives women powerful tools to overcome the challenges of breast cancer. They are a wonderful organization with chapters all over the USA and Canada that we are happy to support whenever possible. I get to be there when people line up to bid on a Maggie Bag at a silent auction. I get to be there to see the excitement when a woman fighting breast cancer learns she won the door prize of a Maggie Bag. I get to be there when we present the check from our month long breast cancer awareness promotion.

But mostly I owe a lot to Maggie Bags because I got to be there to hold her hand.

~Julie Stover, Maggie Bags