Mary Brewer recently reached out to The Bee Foundation to share the story of her daughter, Mallory Brewer, and the wonderful life she lived that was ended too soon by a ruptured brain aneurysm. Read on to learn more about Mallory Brewer and what you can do to support brain aneurysm research and awareness, as well as honor Mallory’s memory.
You can read the first part of Mallory’s Story here.
Mallory was drawn to Pennsylvania when she was recruited by the University of Pittsburgh. After being recruited by multiple colleges, she picked Pittsburgh to be her home (away from home) Mallory attended Grand Rapids Catholic Central and was not able to compete on a team sport while in school. She trained at a club that was an hour away. He mom would car pool her until she was able to drive herself. She was dedicated and disciplined. This eventually paid off as she was offered a full ride scholarship for gymnastics; however full ride scholarships are renewed every year. After her sophomore year she was told by the coach that the scholarship was not going to be renewed and it was being pulled from her. But Mallory being the strong willed girl that she was, she decided that she wanted to be a part of a division one team. She became involved with Athletes in Action; the athlete, coach, and spectator interested in allowing God to shape their thinking in every aspect of life, including their interaction with sports.
Mallory also worked with work Americorps, a program supported by the U.S. federal government, in public service work with a goal of “helping others and meeting critical needs in the community.”
She had an infectious personality and people were drawn to her. She went on to become team co-captain her senior year and she broke the record on floor and was the first Pitt gymnast to get a 9.9 (a record that still stands). Mary Brewer says that after that meet, her coach said to her, “Mary, I didn’t think she had it in her.” And she said “…I always knew she did!” Mallory has a Bachelors in Psychology and just received her MBA from Katz Gradute School of Business.\ in April of 2016.
After not competing in gymnastics for a few years, Mallory decided she wanted to try Crossfit. That is where she was when she collapsed. Crossfit of Greentree called the ambulance and then called her mother (in Grand Rapids, MI), who naturally rushed there to be at her side. While on the way to be with Mallory her mom was asked over the phone for permission to put a stint in Mal’s head to release the fluid that she had. It was then a parent’s worst nightmare happened. “Mallory has 2 aneurysms and we need to go in and clip one. They operated and everything seemed to be moving along very well. She would sit up after a day and then she was eating talking and visiting with over 30 of her friends who wanted to be at her side. A week later, the doctors found the third one. She had to have another surgery and they wanted to clip this one. She was strong and had such a sweet disposition. Always wanting to share her food, listen to country music and watch the Olympics. She could tell you every single deduction that the gymnast had. Her mom bought her a calendar that they would put stickers in telling what kind of day she had. On the last day, Mallory was up and walking, she brushed her teeth and lifted hand weights, she ate, she watched TV, played games; she even flirted with the Mal nurses and talked about doing karaoke in the hall at AGH. When he mom asked her what kind of day she had, Mallory said “OUTSTANDING” Then the phone rang it was 3:34 am… “Mallory took a turn for the worse. They called Mal’s cell phone and I didn’t answer so I listened to the recording and got to her as fast as I could. She was in cardiac arrest.” By the time I had got to the hospital it had been 40 min that they had tried to revive her. The doctors could not believe what happened. This strong, determined young girl was gone. The doctor was just in to see how she was doing and she said “hi, I am fine” Then she got up from the bed and wanted to go thank everyone for taking care of her.
When she was little she would sign her journal “Believe and Achieve” as she got older she was passionate about this saying – “Never be less than your dreams.” She lived life to the fullest and I truly hope that her legacy will live a long time and that we can all be pushed to be the best that we can be. .
To celebrate her what would have been her 28th birthday, dozens of friends (and even some who didn’t know Mallory) from around the world posted pictures to Facebook and Instagram doing a headstand with the hashtag #headstandformallory. They also raised over $1,000 for brain aneurysm research and awareness. If you missed the event on June 16th, you can still donate to the cause today:
