A New, but Familiar, Face at Mamie's

There is a new, yet familiar, face here in the office. We are excited to welcome Jancey Sheats to our team to help with marketing and fundraising. We first met Jancey when Sarah photographed her newborn twins in 2008. There was an instant connection -

Jancey has a daughter named Ryan - Sarah’s middle name

….she has another daughter named Sophie – Sarah’s dog’s name

….her third daughter is named Taylor – Sarah’s husband’s name

….and Jancey’s sister and Mamie share a birthday!

Jancey featured Mamie’s several times while working at KARK and served as the emcee for our very first Race to Remember. She most recently served as State Media Relations Director for Senator Tom Cotton.

We asked her to write a couple of comments. As a journalist, she naturally wrote a story:

There are so many days that I need to go into a closet (I pretend I’m cleaning out clothes) or volunteer to take the dog on a two hour walk just to escape the craziness that is my life. My husband and I are raising three girls, 8 year old twins and a strong willed 6 year old. We even have a hyper-active, high-maintenance female dog. So, there is plenty of drama – although many of our friends would call it a comedy. Like so many moms, I complain about the clutter, my hand sticking to the refrigerator, and the open drawers. My OCD personality has me walking in circles cleaning all day. My husband says it’s like shoveling snow during a snowstorm. Every night before I collapse in bed, I shut the drawers, wipe the grape juice off of the refrigerator and put the toys back onto the shelves, but I have always left the greasy handprints on our back glass door!

When Sarah and Britney reached out to me about joining Mamie’s, my initial thought was there is no way that I can fit one more thing into my chaotic but never dull life. I came home that day after having lunch with them and the first thing I saw when I walked in were those handprints. At that point, my decision was an easy one.

I immediately thought of our daughter, Taylor. Everyone always asks me about the twins, because they were first and my pregnancy was highly publicized. But in 2010, our third daughter Taylor was born five and a half weeks early in respiratory distress. I briefly got a glimpse of her as nurses rushed her away to the NICU. Two days later, I came home from the hospital and Taylor was transported to Children’s on a ventilator. I vividly remember the raw emotions of grief that overwhelmed me when we pulled into our driveway without Taylor. My heart was broken and at that point I told God, she’s yours but I really, really, really, would like to get to know her here first.

There are so many people who volunteer for this organization because they lost a child or know someone who has. For me, I wanted to get involved because I finally did get to bring my daughter with the dark hair and dimpled chin home and because I am grateful to have three sets of dirty handprints on my door. My heart goes out to all of those families who are grieving the loss of a child and I truly feel Mamie’s is making a difference.

#givingback #mamiespoppyplates #janceysheats #janceysheats