Azurae Johnson Redmond’s new nonprofit is an uncanny culmination of her experiences thus far: the mentor mindset she developed through volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters; the research she performed as a volunteer caseworker for the Red Cross; the sense of drowning she felt after losing her husband when she was just 27.
“I was five months pregnant and had my 10-month-old on my hip, wondering, ‘What do I do now?'” says Redmond, now 31, recalling the sudden death of her former college sweetheart, Matthew Holt Redmond, at age 32.
Matthew hadn’t been feeling well, but they chalked his difficulty breathing up to allergies and his fatigue to being overworked as they prepared for their second son. Ultimately, however, a specialist revealed that he had lung cancer, despite him having never smoked.
One year after being declared cancer-free, Matthew unexpectedly collapsed and died.
Without family in the area to help her, Redmond reeled. She fumbled her way through the process of settling the estate and transferring all of the proper documentation: trips to attorneys’ offices, the Social Security office, the hospital and funeral home. She nearly sold their house, but then learned of the pension through Matthew’s electrical engineering job.