Be Strong teamed up with LG to honor, thank and give back to six families who truly personify the six sustainable happiness skills. Through their generosity, gratitude, passion for human connection, mindfulness, positive outlook and lives of purpose, these families bring value and love to everyone they encounter. Together, with LG, we are honored to recognize and gift them each with an entire home appliance upgrade. More than mere machines, these new appliances will help to simplify daily life and sustain and increase the ways in which these selfless families serve their local communities.
Angela
Mom
“Helping others, helping my sons, has always been the reason I do everything I do.”
Purpose (noun)
The reason for which someone or something exists or is done.
Angela’s strength is undeniable, it’s not something that you could easily miss. Angela won’t let you. She’s the type of woman that when she enters a room, she doesn’t need to be announced, but it’s out of respect for how she lives that she should. She deserves to be cheered on.
She is the kind of person that makes other people want to be brave. Her confidence shows, as if it’s something that has always come natural to her. Perhaps that’s the outcome of a life lived with true purpose. Angela has never had to question who she is, though she often had to prove herself to others. Luckily for this world, this is what makes her so good at her job. For much of her life, Angela has been a mental health professional. And anyone who’s ever been questioned knows how important it is to be heard. Only someone who has not been listened to can master how to truly hear others.
“I’ve been made to feel like a prisoner in my own world at times,” Angela explained. She has chronic illnesses, has been misdiagnosed and then finally diagnosed with autism as an adult, and only then, after her son Marques was diagnosed with ASD. This discovery for her, as you can image, was life changing. She attributes the gift of truly and finally knowing herself entirely to Marques. Loving him for everything that he is, accepting him, advocating for simple accommodations to help him succeed, have given her a purpose again. She can know for sure that her mission is still to help and fight for people, even if she’s not able to professionally care for others anymore.
It’s Marques who needs her most of all, and because of Angela, he is able to go out into the world, unapologetically, who he is. His so-called disability is so much more an ability. It is not a mistake and he will show you that every single day. Marques is as brilliant as he is unique. In his words, “I beat to my own drum, I’d say it’s a bass drum; that’s the drum that brings power to a song and builds a harmony for the music.”
Marques and Angela are the perfect duo. They are the proof that purpose can be people. Our purpose can be our relationships, it can be the time we spend dancing together, or silent time spent reading together. Our purpose can be in the moment we tell someone that we understand them, that we see them. Angela deserves to be reminded of this and rewarded for the world she has created for her son, and so many others within the autism community. Marques is and will continue to change this world, and all of that started with his mother.
Angela
Mom
“Helping others, helping my sons, has always been the reason I do everything I do.”
Purpose (noun)
The reason for which someone or something exists or is done.
She is the kind of person that makes other people want to be brave. Her confidence shows, as if it’s something that has always come natural to her. Perhaps that’s the outcome of a life lived with true purpose. Angela has never had to question who she is, though she often had to prove herself to others. Luckily for this world, this is what makes her so good at her job. For much of her life, Angela has been a mental health professional. And anyone who’s ever been questioned knows how important it is to be heard. Only someone who has not been listened to can master how to truly hear others.
“I’ve been made to feel like a prisoner in my own world at times,” Angela explained. She has chronic illnesses, has been misdiagnosed and then finally diagnosed with autism as an adult, and only then, after her son Marques was diagnosed with ASD. This discovery for her, as you can image, was life changing. She attributes the gift of truly and finally knowing herself entirely to Marques. Loving him for everything that he is, accepting him, advocating for simple accommodations to help him succeed, have given her a purpose again. She can know for sure that her mission is still to help and fight for people, even if she’s not able to professionally care for others anymore.
It’s Marques who needs her most of all, and because of Angela, he is able to go out into the world, unapologetically, who he is. His so-called disability is so much more an ability. It is not a mistake and he will show you that every single day. Marques is as brilliant as he is unique. In his words, “I beat to my own drum, I’d say it’s a bass drum; that’s the drum that brings power to a song and builds a harmony for the music.”
Marques and Angela are the perfect duo. They are the proof that purpose can be people. Our purpose can be our relationships, it can be the time we spend dancing together, or silent time spent reading together. Our purpose can be in the moment we tell someone that we understand them, that we see them. Angela deserves to be reminded of this and rewarded for the world she has created for her son, and so many others within the autism community. Marques is and will continue to change this world, and all of that started with his mother.
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