You know how sometimes you read something that makes you stop scrolling, or you hear something with so much humanity that it really stops you in your tracks? This episode is one of those.
I think, especially in Luxembourg as we navigate this expat experience, it’s easy to get caught up in the to do list and the should’s and the over achievement. Always focusing on performance, ticking off that check list, progressing to the next level, the next achievement – it’s easy to get tunnel vision too and to lose sight of what really matters.
Where your values truly lie – and the people that you want to spend your time with. Because, as much as we don’t like to think about it, our time here on this earth is finite.
My next guest, Samia, got my number from a friend of a friend. She reached out to me because her brother, Mehdi, died of a rare disease – and she has made it her life’s work to raise awareness of this rare disease, and to promote the Children's Tumor Foundation in Europe.
We spoke on the phone, and I agreed to have her on the show. But what was crazy is that the next night, I was at a big event – there were at least two hundred people there. And the lady sitting next to me at dinner was Samia! It was such a crazy coincidence, I knew then it was meant to be for me to have her on the show and share her story.
Mehdi was born in 1989, when Samia was 16, and she says he effectively had three moms: her, her sister, and their mother. He was born with neurofibromatosis, or NF, a rare genetic condition that causes tumors to grow on nerves, and everyone who has it experiences it differently. His mom learned what it was by catching a doctor on a French morning show.
Mehdi was funny, kind, and fearless. At 12, he had his first brain surgery. Samia remembers sensing him wake up before anyone else in the room, then seeing him open his eyes with a huge smile.
I’m not going to spoil the rest, but I will tell you that Mehdi called himself an “NF Avenger,” that Samia is now digitizing old VHS tapes for a documentary he dreamed of making, and that she sits on the board of the Children’s Tumor Foundation Europe. She also has some very frank thoughts on why fundraising here is so different from in the US, and why she’s been trying for three years to pull off a gala.
Spoiler alert: this episode is a bit of a tear jerker.
If you’re a mom of a kid with a rare diagnosis, or you’re just a mom drowning in the daily chaos like the rest of us, this one puts things in perspective. Samia’s message, which is really Mehdi’s: hold your people, don’t sweat the small stuff, don’t gossip, and be kind.
Tune in to this episode of Mom Life in Luxembourg wherever you listen to podcasts, on RTL Radio Sunday’s at 5, and follow @momlifeinluxembourg on Instagram and Facebook for more.
