The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) sincerely thanks Ann Samuelson for her tireless dedication to advance education, advocacy, and community efforts to prevent asbestos-caused diseases. The artwork to the right, “Justice Has No Timeline,” was made possible by collaborative efforts by Ann and Rebecca Read. The “Justice Has No Timeline” poster will be available for purchase after our conference. Together, change is possible. Ann, thank you so very much. ~ Linda Reinstein
Posted on March 5, 2013
Empowerment can be a surprising feeling. When we have experienced the deep injustice that sickness, suffering, and the loss of someone very significant in our lives can cause, we often don’t think at the time about how this experience could make us stronger. This was true for me almost 32 years after the loss of my dad, Stan, to mesothelioma. I spoke at the ADAO conference last year as an ADAO volunteer.
My depth of empowerment grew through that experience. It gave me the opportunity to talk about what matters. I talked about my own experience, about the loss of a friend to mesothelioma, and I ended my talk with the phrase, “justice has no timeline.”
My daughter Kristin will be speaking this year at the 2013 ADAO Conference in Washington D.C. I intended to write about multi-generational advocacy and the importance of sharing commitments to change things for the better with our children. Kristin was five days from her first birthday when my Dad passed away. She is now thirty one years old. I know that my Dad would be proud of our commitment to stop the suffering asbestos brings, especially after all this time. He asked me once if I thought people would remember him…I assured him we would never forget. As asbestos and chemotherapy tortured his body, Kristin brought him pure joy. I can still see his smile when he watched her…pure love. This is the reason “justice has no timeline”…pure love…
Ann Samuelson, ADAO Volunteer and 2012 Conference Speaker
Read “An Expectation of Justice,” – which is Ann’s story about her father Stan
Meet Ann’s Daughter Kristin, a 2013 ADAO Conference Presenter
Kristin Samuelson is a full-time student at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. She is studying political science with an emphasis in law and legal studies, as well as philosophy. Kristin lost her grandfather to mesothelioma just days before her first birthday. As a result of this loss, Kristin is passionate about justice and became involved in this fight in the hopes of having a positive impact against the insidious diseases caused by asbestos exposure.
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