As a teenager, no one really wants to talk to their mother on the phone, and that was how I felt early Saturday morning on January 29, 1994, when my mother called me at a friend’s house. As I begrudgingly picked up the phone, my adolescent attitude gave way to a much more powerful emotion when I heard her say, “Sherry, Daddy died.”

I wish no one ever had to hear those words.

At the young age of 44, my father died of sudden cardiac arrest. I have now lived as much of my life without my father as I lived with him.

In November 2008, I stepped off the sidelines in the fight against heart disease and went to work for the American Heart Association. While the time I spent there often stirred up memories and emotions I once wanted to suppress, I knew that my efforts to help raise money for research, education and awareness might save another little girl’s daddy.

I miss my father. Everything is so different without him. I look back at pictures from my sister’s wedding, and while I remember how fantastic the day was, I also see the empty space he should have filled. I know that I am the woman I am today because of the short time I had him in my life, and that understanding impacts almost all of my decisions.

When I decided to change careers, coming to work at an organization that supports the community was important to me, so the fact that The Planet supports the community – and the AHA in particular – won me over. More than 16 years after I got that phone call, I am happy to be working with an amazing team that is also armed to fight cardiovascular disease.

Every year, I participate in the American Heart Association’s Start! Heart Walk, and because today is National Start Walking Day, I’m joining my coworkers in a brisk walk at lunch to get into gear.

I am challenging myself to walk 10,000 steps a day until November 7. If every one of The Planet’s 500 employees do the same, we’ll walk 1,085,000,000 steps – almost 22 laps around the globe.

I hope you’ll consider supporting our efforts to get moving, to raise money for the AHA, and most of all, that you’ll share your own story of how your life has been affected by heart disease.

Will you lace up your walking shoes?

-Sherry