06/14/2026
This is a picture I’ll always remember.
Two beaming young optimistic parents on their beautiful daughter’s first visit to an apple orchard.
Their little girl—not even 18 months old— gripping an apple that she likely picked with those teeny fingers, a small bite tucked into those cherubic little cheeks.
This was the picture Meredith Ellis shared with me when we met about 6 years ago.
Her smiling face doesn’t offer clues to what this young family was going through.
But the head wrap she was wearing did.
Meredith, her husband, Bryan, and their delightful little Maddie, were locked in a battle with breast cancer.
She was just 33 at the time she was diagnosed—just a couple months older than Kelly was when we got the same awful news.
Meredith was a guest on our podcast about perseverance and hope. She reluctantly agreed to participate, “If you really think it will help someone,” she told me.
Based on what I’ve learned since, that was Meredith to a T.
She shared some tears as she talked about her undying love for Bryan and Maddie.
I asked her what she had learned during her illness. She said she and Bryan had a mantra, “Give yourself grace.”
That’s wisdom we could all use today.
Over the next few years, Meredith battled quietly, fighting so hard to be there for her beloved family, including her salt-of-the-earth parents, Bill and Lucie, who would give you the shirts off their backs.
I’m grateful to know them and grateful to know their generosity.
I’m also thankful for knowing Meredith.
I was deeply saddened to learn that she passed away Thursday.
She was just 39 years old.
I hope that one day, when Maddie is all grown up and she looks at this picture, she’ll smile knowing how much her mother adored her.
And when Maddie is having a particularly bad day, missing her mom terribly, I hope she hears her words, “Give yourself grace.”
