The Luckiest Foundation

How did we get here, and what is the Deborah McBride Scholarship?

My name is Brendan Hermes.

In the second week of January I noticed some small but significant changes in my wife: she was communicating less, she was forgetting words and schedules, she had mild headaches, and she just didn't seem like herself.

After a few days of prodding, and a search of her symptoms on a medical website, I urged her to get a brain scan at our local hospital. Four hours later she received her diagnosis of Glioblastoma. 16 hours after that, she was undergoing her first of, what would be, three brain surgeries.

She would never recover, and 8 weeks later, Deborah McBride, my beautiful wife of 20 years and my partner of 24, and the mother of our three children, would pass away at the age of 45.

We had always considered ourselves lucky. Lucky to find each other. Lucky to have jobs we enjoyed. Lucky to have healthy kids. Lucky to have a home in a community that we loved.

Shamrocks everywhere.

I miss her greatly, and in her honor, her loving family and I have decided that some deserving young minds would benefit from getting some of their college tuition paid.

The Deborah McBride scholarship will be given to a student, each year, who would like to attend college or university to pursue a degree in History, Public Policy, Journalism or Communication.

Deb was an avid reader and lover of historical fiction. She was the VP of Communications at A + E Networks in NYC and had degree in History and Public Policy. Writing was a primary function of her role with the company and she excelled.

Our three children and I will work to keep the Luckiest Foundation solvent by hosting two events per year: One in Lewistown, PA in August and one in Maplewood, NJ in March; each year to serve as fundraisers for the foundation.

We will celebrate the legacy Deb brought to the physical world.

Then, we'll do it all again.

One day her children will be thanked by students who have benefited from the generosity of their foundation and they will do so in the name of their mother.

We are not always lucky, but we are The Luckiest to have had Deb in our lives, albeit too short of a time.

Thank you for contributing thought, time and ultimately finances to keep the legacy of Deb in our hearts, always.