This is absolutely getting crazy.  My goal with this blog is to provide a place where we can discuss all things food allergies, asthma that help support lives lived well.  Unfortunately, this week seems to be full of gloom and doom.  It is my commitment to always pray and honor those lost to these diseases, so that I can remember them in our fighting of the good fight.    Last night, I first read about a teenage girl passing away on the street in Ireland, after a pharmacy turned the mother and child away while refusing to give them an epinephrine auto-injector, as reported by the Independent.ie, “Mothers Agony as teenage girl dies from peanut allergy on city street”.  Then immediately after reading that story, Donna DeCosta, book and website author of Food Allergy Mom Doc, sharee the Obituary of  Hopkinton, MA teen Abbie Benford. 

Image courtesy of Graur Codin via Freedigitialphotos.net
I had never read back to back food allergy deaths before.  This is bizarre.   In this link from the Holliston-Hopkinton Patch,  “Ashland Skates in Honor of Abbie”, you can find facebook and twitter postings from classmates and fellow hockey players .  It’s heart breaking! In the same breath, maybe these deaths will get the attention of school districts, legislators, coaches and communities to jump on board and recognize the serious nature of food allergies.  Also, as a mother of a teenager, it is important that I share these stories so we can absorb the lessons that took place.

My thoughts and prayers go out to each family and I hope that one day peace finds them.

To help change the energy of this heavy week, I will be posting a second blog today about a wonderful, new candy store in Santa Monica, California that consciously sells candy that is free of dyes and many allergens.  Candy does make me smile.