Elizabeth McMahon Biography
5/2/10 ACE 8/9
The fact that West Babylon High School is a relatively large school leads one to believe that pure fate created the tight friendship that existed between John McMahon, Don Baldwin and Dave Oakland. The group attended school alongside the Udle sisters; Cathy, Debbie, Tracey, Leslie and Kelly. At the time, the guys didn’t realize it, but they were destined to become brothers-in-law. The first one to fall in love was John, who fell head over heels for the oldest Udle girl, Cathy. Next was Don, who was struck by the incomparable beauty of Debbie. Finally Dave married Kelly, the youngest of the five girls. With all three marriages, the eternal friendship of John, Don and Dave was sealed. John and Cathy were the first couple to have children; Christina Marie in 1984 and also, two years later, John James. On May 14, 1993, nine years after their first child, Cathy gave birth a final time to Elizabeth. Elizabeth, however, was born with breathing complications and suffered from severe asthma. At one routine trip to the doctor’s office, she was rushed to the emergency room declared to be in respiratory arrest, even though she was breathing as she typically did. After having her adenoids and tonsils removed, however, most of the symptoms abated. On January 2, 2000 Debbie gave birth to a daughter Danielle, who was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. With the new baby, Elizabeth’s entire family began to learn a lot about the disease as well as what it is like to live and work with a child with special needs. Because of the fact that the effects of Down Syndrome vary among individuals, Elizabeth and her relatives began to learn basic sign language, which typically acts as a
productive way to communicate with children, such as those with Down Syndrome, who suffer from speech disorders. As Danielle grew older, those around her began to volunteer their time to helping her as well as others who suffer from similar conditions. Elizabeth, for example, supported her cousin by volunteering her time helping out at functions hosted by the Down Syndrome Resource Center. Besides her cousin, Elizabeth had also been greatly affected by the close relationship she shared with her siblings. In June of 2002, Christina graduated from Mohonasen High School and moved to Massachusetts in order to study psychology, and later library science, at Boston University. Two years later, Elizabeth’s brother John followed suit and left to study biotechnology at Rochester Institute of Technology. With both siblings relatively local, Elizabeth was able to see her relatives often. It wasn’t until Christina graduated from Boston University in 2006 and moved to Virginia in order to enroll in Catholic University’s graduate program, did Elizabeth truly suffer from seldom visits by her sister. November 8, 2008 was a momentous day for Elizabeth because it was on this day that she served as the maid of honor in her sister’s marriage to Trevor Smith. Elizabeth spent most of her time playing soccer. She began playing the sport competitively in fourth grade when she joined the town of Rotterdam’s travel soccer team. Since then her passion for soccer only grew. Elizabeth’s childhood lung condition strengthened her lungs to a point where they surpassed the ability of typical lungs. Such a tribulation ended up benefiting Elizabeth in the long run as she began to excel in athletics. During her youth, she represented Upstate New York on the state team and even played internationally in Ottawa, Canada. “One of my favorite soccer memories,” Elizabeth once noted, “was competing at the U.S Youth Soccer Region One Regional
Identification Camp, where I was coached by some of the best women’s coaches in the U.S.” Besides soccer, Elizabeth also participated in Mohonasen varsity track throughout her high school years. One of her highlights during this period was breaking the school’s 4 X 1500 meter relay record alongside Ally Dalton, Kate Kuebler and Melissa Sullivan. Although soccer took up a large portion of her time, Elizabeth also greatly enjoyed traveling, especially with her family. Some of her favorite destinations included Hawaii, Disney World and Alaska. She also greatly enjoyed going to Saint Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands, for her uncle’s wedding. In August of 2009, she took part in a family reunion aboard a Carnival cruise ship sailing along the coast of New England and Canada. Such an experience, surrounded by her extended family, reminded Elizabeth of the importance of family in her life and how lucky she was to have been born into such a loving environment. Elizabeth’s sense of adventure and love for nature led her to enjoy partaking in numerous outdoor activities such as hiking and biking. Whether it was up the side of a mountain, in the tall trees of the Adirondacks, or in a local gym, she loved to rock climb and climbing through rope courses. While vacationing in Oahu, Elizabeth learned the joy of windsurfing. After her initial introduction to the sport, she continued on to windsurf, although not always successfully, in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Another great thrill Elizabeth experienced was riding the world’s tallest and fastest rollercoaster, located in New Jersey. Graduating from Mohonasen High School not only served as a milestone in Elizabeth’s life, but also represented the closing of her childhood. Although the realization of such an idea frightened her, Elizabeth entered into Cornell University’s
biology program in the fall of 2011 eager and ready. During the next four years of her life Elizabeth was bombarded with knowledge as she studied not only typical biology, but environmental conservation and nutrition as well. There was never a dull moment in Elizabeth’s life as, along side her studies, she continued to follow her passion to play varsity collegiate soccer. Besides providing Elizabeth with a way to spend her time while staying in shape, such a commitment also initiated her into a close sect of girls who were not only great teammates, but loyal friends. Taking advantage of summer opportunities as well as studying abroad programs, Elizabeth used college as an excuse to get out, see all nature had to offer and immerse herself in the different cultures of the world. It is during this time that she scuba dived alongside the Great Barrier Reef, studied the exotic Polynesian culture in New Zealand, witnessed the mysteries of Easter Island and observed the diverse wildlife of the Galapagos Islands and Africa; most notably the lemurs of Madagascar. Elizabeth continued her studies even further as she entered into Boston University’s Medical School where she focused on pediatrics. After graduating as an official Doctor of Medicine, Elizabeth longed to return to third world Africa to use both her knowledge and training in order to provide succor for the ailing children of the area whose abject poverty made even the most curable deaths, often unheard of in the United States, frequent. In order to gain the supplies and funds necessary for such an endeavor, Elizabeth had to work alongside already existing corporations to help plan ways to gain revenue. It is through events and fundraisers sponsored for such causes that Elizabeth met her husband, who eventually came to help co-found a small organization alongside
Elizabeth in which they provided cheap medical care for the children of the quaint, inland African village in which they lived and worked. Much of the organization and financial dealings for the group was left to a collection of employees and volunteers located in Washington D.C. After a couple of years in serving the region of Africa in which they settled, the chaos and crowds that originally assailed the couple began to die down. Rather than using such momentum and stability in order to enlarge the organization they themselves had created, Elizabeth and her husband decided to volunteer their time with other, already established groups. With having to travel down to Cape Town, South Africa frequently in order to pick up medical supplies, the couple often prolonged their stay in order to help out with provincial organizations or learn of any updates to programs that they had extended to their region. The two organizations that Elizabeth and her husband donated most of their efforts to were the World Wildlife Fund, an organization both of them had always supported, and Grassroot Soccer, a foundation that used soccer as way to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa. After learning about the program through Nike’s donation products, Elizabeth served a Grassroot Soccer internship, which has been described as a sort of Peace Corps for soccer players, while she was in college. In the years that followed, Elizabeth had two children of her own and adopted another. The adopted child was only a year old when she became an orphan after losing both her parents to AIDS. With three young children, one of which inevitably received HIV genetically and, therefore, was bound to develop a feeble immune system, and the realization that Elizabeth would never get used to the harsh and searing African climate, the family decided to relocate back to the United States. After deciding to maintain a
more voluntary and organizational role in their African medical clinic, the couple also decided to each enter into more traditional careers. Although the transition was not as smooth as it could’ve been, the family moved to a relatively modest home in Babylon, New York that was within walking distance of the beach. There, Elizabeth became a typical pediatrician and her husband entered a HIV/AIDS research laboratory in honor of their adopted daughter. With a substantial amount of money going to increasing medical bills, the couple lived out the rest of their children’s youth in the same house. Although a cure had not yet been found, a general way to prevent HIV from turning into AIDS was developed, allowing the youngest child to live a perfectly normal life. After all of their children graduated from college and entered into their own careers and families, Elizabeth and her husband moved back to their African village where they lived out the rest of their lives continuing to serve the community that they had both fell in love with and became an eternal part of.