In honor of World Sickle Cell Day, a son honors his late mother, Golden Sickle Cell Warrior Patricia McGill 

By Crawford McGill

Dear Mom,

The world is just now meeting a version of you. The headlines call you a warrior, the woman who defied the odds. All of it is true. But when I say, "my mom," what rises up in me is simpler. I think of a fierce protector who was always looking out for us, always thinking ahead about our future, even imagining a day she might not be here to see it.

You understood what most parents wrestle with for a lifetime: that the hardest thing is to watch your children struggle and not rush in to fix it. So, you chose something braver. You didn't just protect us, you equipped us. You made sure we could stand on our own and think our way through anything that came at us.

"It's Possible." We put it on the invitation to your 80th birthday celebration, but you were living it long before it was printed on cardstock. It came from your favorite verse, "All things work together for good…". That was never a saying on the wall. It was the air you breathed. You believed everything had purpose, and that through prayer, all things were possible.

For us, it started the day we were born. They told you not to have children. Speaking for kid number three, I'm grateful you didn't listen. You handed us a confidence that's hard to put into words. Whether a shy kid running for homecoming king, a young man dreaming of running NBC, a man determined to become the most successful Black financial advisor at a Fortune 500 company, to you, those were never just dreams. They were possibilities. And the only reason I believed I could reach them is simple: you believed it first.

You spent more than 30 years teaching children with learning disabilities, but your first three students sat at your own kitchen table. You never let us see a different way of learning as something holding us back. To you it was never a weakness. It was an edge. You taught us that seeing the world differently meant we could think and succeed in our own way.

I watched you live your faith out loud, especially in how you lived life with sickle cell. Where others saw only pain, you saw purpose. You called it a blessing, not because it was easy, but because it gave you a reason to reach for someone else. Close to 200 blood transfusions over a lifetime, and you turned even that into a way to serve. You were a true silver lining person. No matter what came, you believed there was good in it. You just had to be willing to look. That belief has carried me more times than I can count. Because of you, I don't just hope things will work out for good, I believe it.

Your joy is the part no one could explain unless they knew you. People felt it the moment you walked into a room. You knew how a single smiling face in a crowd could lift someone up, and you made sure you were that face. Sunday dinners were never only meals. They were laughter and togetherness. And you did the same in the rooms where joy is harder to find, even from a hospital chair. Sometimes you were the only one in the stands at my soccer games. To me, that meant everything. You showed up. You believed. You made sure we knew we were supported.

Last year, when I found out I had cancer, my first instinct surprised even me. I didn't see the end. I saw it the way you would have, as something that still had purpose, and a way to help other people get checked and screened. That's you, still alive and working in me. That's the infrastructure you left behind, and it has outlasted every memory.

So, on this World Sickle Cell Day, if I could tell you one thing, it would be this: job well done. You raised three children who carry everything you poured into us, every single day. We see you more clearly now than we ever did, not only as our mother, but as a woman who gave hope to people we will never meet. We understand now how much your life mattered in ways that reached far beyond what you got to see. And we are still walking in everything you created.

You always said your proudest accomplishment was your children. Mom, you should know, we're proud too. Proud to be yours.

All my love,

Crawford

Patricia McGill lived 81 full years, carried by an unshakable faith and the generous support of blood donors who, over her lifetime, made an estimated 200 transfusions possible. Her light is one of countless that still shines bright through the lives she touched. This Juneteenth and World Sickle Cell Day, the American Red Cross honors sickle cell warriors, the light they carry, and the family and donors who surround them. Donate in Patricia's honor this June and help patients continue to thrive.

Summer months are historically challenging for the blood supply as donor turnout dips while patient need stays constant. Individuals of all blood types are urged to make an appointment now by using the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting RedCrossBlood.org/OurBlood or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

Come to give blood June 1-28 for a $15 e-gift card to your choice of merchant PLUS automatic entry for a chance to win one of two $7,500 gift cards. See rcblood.org/June for details.