It is with great sadness that we learned today of the death of one of our clients, Mary Anaya.

She was a courageous, principled, and loving wife, mother, minister, and friend.

May God rest her soul.

Woman’s spirit stilled by disease
By Erin Grace
Omaha World Herald
Published Thursday October 22, 2009

In this October 2007 photo, Mary Anaya is surrounded by her children. She holds son Joel, 6 weeks old at the time. Anaya, co-founder of Omaha’s largest food pantry, died Wednesday of lung cancer, an extremely rare diagnosis during pregnancy.

Mary Anaya fed the hungry and clothed the naked, all the while mothering 10 children, plus the one growing in her womb. But she died early Wednesday at age 42, leaving behind her family and a long record of loving her neighbor as herself.

Though diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer early in her pregnancy, she tried to continue her work with the food pantry she co-founded, Mission for All Nations. It is the largest food pantry in a 93-county area of Nebraska and Iowa.

But she died early Wednesday at age 42, leaving behind her family and a long record of loving her neighbor as herself.

Anaya died after midnight at Bergan Mercy Medical Center, said the pantry’s board president, David Philson, who is serving as a family spokesman. So did the 19-week-old fetus due in March whom she carried.

A funeral service will be at 9 a.m. Saturday at Glad Tidings Church, 7415 Hickory St.

Anaya lived a rare life through her service, her large family and, in her final months, trying to bear new life while confronting her impending death.

“Mary just was the organization,” said Michelle Moyes Dill, executive director of Together Inc., a nonprofit that distributes food and clothes. “You said, ‘Mary Anaya,’ and everybody knew it was Mission for All Nations. She gave everything she had. I think (she and husband Josue) would have given the last box of food out of their home cupboard to help somebody.”

Anaya, who had no cancer history and was not a smoker, went to see a doctor Aug. 21 when she was having difficulty breathing. She was hospitalized for fluid buildup on her lungs. She then was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.

Lung cancer kills more Americans than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined, according to the American Lung Association, and it does so quickly.

Cancer during pregnancy is not unheard of — about 1 in 1,000 pregnancies coincides with a mother’s diagnosis of cancer, according to the Houston-based M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

But a lung cancer diagnosis is “extremely rare” during pregnancy, said Dr. Kirsten Leu, an Omaha-based medical oncologist at Nebraska Cancer Specialists. Leu said the most commonly diagnosed cancer during pregnancy is breast cancer, followed by cervical cancer and types of lymphoma.

Depending on the type and timing of diagnosis, one can be treated for cancer while pregnant, said Leu, who did not know or treat Anaya. Radiation therapy can harm a fetus, but some types of chemotherapy can be relatively safe in the second and third trimesters.

Anaya, in her first trimester when diagnosed with cancer, was told that the disease was too advanced for treatment options, said her brother, Daniel Mills.

Because the couple had no health insurance, Mission for All Nations directed that anyone wishing to donate to her expenses could do so through two funds.

A posting signed by the couple on the pantry’s Web site read: “I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of prayers and the financial support for our mounting medical bills.”

Anaya was born in Clarinda, Iowa, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in education at the University of Iowa. She met her husband in Iowa City, and the couple were married in 1986. They have seven sons and three daughters. Their children range in age from 22 to 2.

The Anayas informally started Mission for All Nations in 2002. The couple, ordained ministers who are fluent in English and Spanish, had started a church in 1999 in south Omaha. But they were constantly helping visitors with clothes and food.

“The ministry grew more into a pantry than a church,” Mary Anaya told The World-Herald in 2004. “We realized that what was needed in this community maybe wasn’t what we originally thought. We changed gears.”

The organization incorporated in 2003 and quickly grew to encompass three buildings in the 21st and Q Streets area.

From January through the end of September, the Omaha Food Bank distributed almost 278,000 pounds of food to Mission for All Nations. That represents about a quarter of the 1.16 million pounds of food the food bank distributed to 55 agencies in Douglas County during that time.

Unlike most food pantries, which limit visits to several times a year, Mission for All Nations had an open-door policy for the needy, as long as they volunteered.

It also ran a Christmas program that provided families with toys, stocking stuffers, wrapping paper, gifts for parents and a turkey or ham.

The Anayas’ religious convictions drove their service work and family life, though twice that put them at odds with the State of Nebraska over state-mandated metabolic testing on newborns.

In 2003 and 2007 the Anayas protested having their newborns undergo the test, which involves pricking an infant’s heel for blood. The Nebraska Supreme Court last year upheld the mandatory testing law but said a lower court acted improperly in removing the Anayas’ youngest child from the home temporarily in 2007 over the issue.

Philson, the pantry board president, said Anaya’s death is a terrible loss. He said the organization remains committed to keeping the pantry open.

“We’re doing everything we can to support (the Anayas),” he said. “The mission will be fine.”

God bless Josue and the Anaya children.