06/02/2026
💓 National CPR & AED Awareness Week 💓
My daughter will celebrate her 5th birthday this week.
And every year, I still sit with the weight of what almost wasn’t.
At just 14 days old & 4lbs, Nora went into cardiac arrest and respiratory failure. She wasn’t breathing. Her heart wasn’t doing what it was supposed to do. In those moments, everything that should have ended her story… didn’t.
Because on the side of the road, Bell County Sheriff’s Deputy Shawn Hearn started CPR, and he didn’t stop. Not for 9 minutes. Not when it was hard. Not when it felt like too long. He just kept going. He refused to give up on her.
Nine minutes doesn’t sound like much until you’re living inside it.
And for us, those nine minutes are the reason we still get birthdays.
That day changed our entire world.
We were blessed to know Shawn afterward. He was an honorable man, a kind man, a family man , someone who showed up in one of the most critical moments of our lives and gave everything he had. We lost him just over two years later, but I truly believe his legacy is still here with us, living and breathing in our daughter every single day.
Because of our story, CPR and AED awareness isn’t just important to me, it’s personal in a way I can’t explain without emotion.
It’s the reminder that:
CPR is the difference between life and death
AEDs give hope when time runs out
And one person choosing not to give up can change an entire family’s story
If you take anything from this week, let it be this ..learn CPR. Not because you expect to need it… but because someone else’s entire world may depend on it.
We are the proof that it works. 💙