12/11/18 UPDATE: 

My mother Laura's 69th birthday would have been December 10th, 2018. As of this date $3,700 was donated by her friends and family to ALS TDI in honor of her. 

I plan to leave this fundraising page active, to continue to share Mom's story, and encourage any future donations. 

I am so grateful to all who donated, and I am so grateful for my mom. 

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My mother, Laura Lydecker Carr, passed away due to complications from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in August 2018. Mom was a polio and breast cancer survivor, but when she was diagnosed in December 2016 with ALS she declined very rapidly. She was a wonderful mother and wife, and a remarkable artist and illustrator of children's books. Mom was amazingly brave while ALS caused her to lose her ability to speak, to eat, to stand, to write, and eventually to breathe. She would wish that no other person have to experience this. She hoped to be part of finding a cure for this cruel disease. 

To mark what would have been Mom’s 69th birthday on December 10th, I’m raising money for the ALS Therapy Development Institute. To honor my mother and her love and compassion for others, please consider donating. For this ALS campaign no ice buckets or hot pepper eating is required! But if you’d like to pay homage to mom, please take a moment to feed the birds, tend to a garden, or sing.  But before you do that, please consider donating and sharing this campaign.  

“ALS is not an incurable disease, it’s an underfunded one.” 

I have chosen to donate to the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI) based on the recommendation of several ALS advocates I admire. ALS TDI is a nonprofit research organization fully dedicated to combating ALS. Their main project right now involves getting a promising treatment for ALS, AT-1501 into a clinical trial.

Learn more about Laura's life here: https://lauralydeckercarr.wordpress.com/

See Laura's beautiful artwork here: https://ofmiceandmoons.wordpress.com/

To DONATE scroll back up to the top of this page and click "Donate".

Photos below:

1) Mom and me a few weeks after her diagnosis

2) A watercolor painting by Mom

3) Mom in June 2018