As I look at her helping that brilliant son of hers, it’s hard to imagine how much different things could have been. Had that day nine years ago turned out differently.

After a difficult time getting pregnant, the day had come for Ana and her husband Michael to meet the son she dreamed of most of her life. A life that seemed like it was going to be taken far too soon.

Ana experienced complications from her pregnancy due to placenta accreta. During delivery she lost half of her blood volume and needed three emergency transfusions – that presented its own set of challenges. The hospital she was in did not have her blood type. That led to a frantic search at other hospitals to get it quickly enough. Further delaying the surgery needed to save her life. But just like she’s always fought for what she wants, that day she fought to stay alive.

That was 2015, here we are on this Tuesday night inside her Northeast Tallahassee home sitting around the kitchen table watching her now 8-year-old play. Ana is living what some might call her best life. She’s a businesswoman, community servant, loving daughter, wife and most importantly a mother. If you spend any time with her, you know just how much she loves that title. If you spend as much time with her as I do, you feel the love she has for her sweet Addison and her husband Michael. A love that extends far beyond the Melendez-Anders family and deep into Tallahassee.

Ana’s ability to connect with nearly anyone is impressive. Her husband Michael has many stories about relationships she’s made as they’ve lived all over the world.

“Ana is extremely gregarious and has never met a stranger in her life.  While living in San Francisco, I would travel to Portland each week for work and stayed in the same hotel 3-4 nights a week.  Ana, several months pregnant, visited for one week and by the end of her trip knew everyone from the parking attendant to a friendly local billionaire.”

To appreciate Ana’s desire to make everyone feel seen and loved, we must look back at how she got here.

Back to the beginning

Picture it, the year is 1985 and a six-year-old arrives in the United States for the first time. If you’re a Golden Girls fan like Ana this is not the start of a Sophia Petrillo story – it’s so much better. When the plane touched down in Columbus, Ohio it was unlike anything Ana had ever seen. The ground was covered with snow, that was a first.  Her father’s job with an engineering company brought the family to the United States. What was supposed to be a short stay turned into home for the Melendez family.

As with all new beginnings the move to the U.S. even at six, was not without its challenges. There was the language barrier that forced Ana to repeat kindergarten. Read Full Story in Magazine above.