Tonight, Knoxville’s Henley Street Bridge was beautifully illuminated in teal and blue in recognition of Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month.

For me, seeing those colors shining across the bridge was much more than a beautiful sight. It was personal.

On May 25, I reached out to the City of Knoxville and requested that the Henley Street Bridge be illuminated during September to help bring awareness to Pulmonary Fibrosis. On June 1, Eric Vreeland with Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon’s office contacted me and let me know they would make it happen.

Tonight, they kept that commitment.

I want to personally thank Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon, Eric Vreeland and the Mayor’s team for honoring my request and helping shine a light—quite literally—on a disease that has touched my family and so many others.

On January 9, 2015, we lost my Mom, Wanda Lou (Blake) Hornback, to Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Mom was a fighter.

Anyone who has watched someone they love struggle simply to take a breath understands how helpless and heartbreaking that experience can be. Breathing is something most of us rarely think about—until we watch someone we love fight for every breath.

It is life altering.

More than eleven years after losing Mom, I still remember that fight. That is why Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month means something deeply personal to me and why tonight’s lighting of the Henley Street Bridge means far more than changing the colors of some lights.

It means awareness.

It means remembering those we have lost.

It means standing with those who are fighting Pulmonary Fibrosis today and with the families walking beside them.

And for me, tonight, it meant remembering Mom.

Mayor Kincannon and Eric Vreeland—thank you.

Thank you for listening when I made the request back in May. Thank you for following through. Thank you for helping bring attention to Pulmonary Fibrosis.

And thank you for giving this son an opportunity to look at the Henley Street Bridge glowing beautifully in teal and blue tonight and think about Wanda Lou (Blake) Hornback—my Mom, my fighter.

The bridge was beautiful.