Happy Valentine's Day, Danielle. No matter how you celebrate, I hope you get the opportunity to show some love to the people you care about — and you also feel loved today. My mother was born on February 14, and she loved her special connection to Valentine's Day. From the time they were teenage sweethearts, my daddy bought my mother a heart-shaped box of chocolates every year. In fact, I have a box of valentines that he gave her all those years ago. I loved my mother's special connection to Valentine's Day, too. When I was a little girl, I bought some heart-shaped pans at the dime store. It became a family tradition: Every year, I baked my mother a heart-shaped cake. Decades later, when she was in her 80s, she had some minor surgery — nothing serious. The day before she was scheduled to go home, she was in good cheer. All the kids and grandkids came to visit, and we gathered in her hospital room to tell funny stories. We laughed and had juice and cookies. Finally, Daddy sent us all home, and we left that evening expecting her to be released from the hospital the next day. Then, in the middle of the night, my brother called. He said that we lost our mother. Daddy had been sitting with her when she leaned forward and said, "Don, there's that gas pain again." I was almost too shocked to cry. I just couldn't believe it. How could this have happened? We found out that she had advanced heart disease — never diagnosed, and never treated. Despite her regular trips to the doctor for check-ups, no one had any idea. I would later learn that heart disease is the #1 killer of women. No longer considered just a "man's disease," doctors do a much better job screening and treating women for cardiovascular disease today than they did when my mother had her heart attack. Even though my mother is gone now, I still have my heart-shaped pans. This weekend, I baked a heart-shaped cake, and opened up the box filled with old valentines from my daddy. It's how I remember her.
And I'm also doing something more to help remember her: I'm fighting — with every bone in my body — to make sure everyone can get the health care they need to live long, healthy lives with the people they love.
It feels like the Trump administration is doing everything they can to keep that from happening, to be frank. His Big, Ugly Bill took away health care from 17 million people so he could give tax cuts for billionaires. His cuts to the NIH meant that hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding for cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and heart disease simply vanished. So I'm staying in this fight to protect health care and get more and more patients the support they need to live long, healthy lives — no matter how hard Republican extremists try to cut it. I'm grateful you're in this fight by my side. Happy Valentine's Day, Elizabeth  | 
