When Mary's sister was diagnosed with cancer, she took in her sister's 3year daughter. What was meant to be a 3 week stay turned into Mary serving as a substitute parent to her niece, as her sister passed away, due to complications from the cancer treatment. Mary journaled about her journey. With her niece's permission, she wrote the book "It know it in my heart", the story of a grieving caretaker, trying to understand a grieving child.