Our Story

In 2008, Michelle Moore was a working mother of three young boys, the breadwinner for her family, and a vice president at a large healthcare company. She was active in her church and her community, and like most mothers, she carried the weight of keeping everyone and everything running.

Then, in an instant, that life changed. Just days before she was scheduled to travel internationally on a philanthropic corporate trip, Michelle went in for a routine mammogram. It revealed an aggressive form of breast cancer. She was 41. Within weeks she underwent a double mastectomy and began what would become a grueling year: 17 rounds of chemotherapy, five surgeries, and a clinical trial, along with a fear she couldn’t shake, one that echoed her own mother’s early death: that she might leave her children without a mother too.

Three weeks after her diagnosis, while she was still recovering from surgery and preparing to start chemotherapy, Michelle noticed her seven-year-old son didn’t seem well. Within minutes of arriving at his pediatrician’s office, they were rushed to Phoenix Children’s Hospital. He was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and he had come frighteningly close to losing his life. Suddenly, Michelle was fighting for her own life while learning how to keep her son’s.

There were insulin injections and blood-sugar checks, emergency calls and hospital visits, bills piling up, three children who still needed their mother, and a career in which she felt she had to stay strong, capable, and in control. From the outside, she appeared to be managing it all. Inside, she was depleted, terrified, and barely surviving.

Michelle had loving family and friends, and she was grateful for them. But even with support, the weight of carrying a family through a medical crisis was overwhelming. She remembers walking into her home office and finding months of unopened mail and unpaid bills stacked in front of her. She prayed for someone to come in and just take it all over.

That was the moment Mother’s Grace was born.

Michelle knew she wasn’t the only mother lying awake at night, afraid, praying for help. There were mothers wondering how they would pay the mortgage, keep their job, make the next medical decision, or simply get through another day, and what they needed wasn’t another form to complete or another waiting list to join. They needed someone to see them, hear them, and step into the crisis with immediate, compassionate help.

Mother’s Grace began simply. A small group of like-hearted women sold household items, collected gift cards, paid small bills, delivered meals, provided transportation, and sat beside mothers who needed to know they weren’t alone. It didn’t start as a large organization or a polished plan. It started with empathy and the determination to show up.

More than fifteen years later, that’s still the heart of the mission. When a mother is facing cancer, a critically ill child, the sudden loss of a spouse, or another life-altering tragedy, Mother’s Grace can respond within 72 hours with real financial assistance and personal support.

“That’s when we come in,” Michelle says, “kind of like an answer to a prayer.”

“I’ve been called strong throughout my life,” Michelle says, “but I’ve never believed strength means carrying everything alone. Real strength is letting someone stand beside you when life gets too heavy. It’s mothers supporting mothers, not with judgment or empty words, but with love, dignity, and action.

“I created Mother’s Grace because I understand the mother who is holding everyone together while quietly falling apart herself, and I want her to know this: we see you. You don’t have to face this alone. Let us carry some of the weight until you can stand again.

“Because when a mother is supported, a family can begin to heal. And when mothers support one another, we can heal the world. One woman at a time.”

Michelle Moore, Founder & President