Two years may not seem like a long period of time to achieve a lot of things, but it’s a very short amount of time to lose a lot of things. For Connie Swackhammer, it was the latter. Connie lost her grandson, her grandmother, her mother, and her youngest son. That’s four generations of her family gone in such a short amount of time.
These tragic events weren’t the first for Connie. Her life had taken a few bad turns before. Connie was working as an HR Professional when she was in a severe car accident. She spent over a year in recovery and developed Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. This cost her her job and makes it impossible for her to work a regular full-time job. Connie was then diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Out of all of this, Connie says that the most devastating was the loss of her son Christian. “I wasn’t sure if I could continue. It took me over a year of therapy to find the strength to get out of bed and begin living again.”
After the death of her son, Connie realized what really was important. Her life is now heavy on helping others. “Helping others is what makes me the happiest and able to move every day. My life’s goal is now just to make a difference in the world as I know it.” Connie wanted to honor her son Christian in some way and he loved animals and had a heart for the homeless, so Connie co-founded Faithful Forgotten Best Friends. FFBF is an organization that works with veterinarians to get vaccines, wellness check-ups, and spay and neutering for the pets of homeless. They reach out to find donations of food for the animals and also work closely with Mount Carmel Medical Outreach to find those animals that need food and medical help. When FFBF started, they were serving 11 homeless pets, now they serve over 200! “Christian rescued many dogs. In fact we still have the dogs he rescued. Every time I am able to help someone with their pet, I know he’s proud.”
It takes a very strong support system to help Connie and she has that in her husband Larry. Larry is very supportive and is on the board of directors of FFBF. And of course Connie couldn’t do everything she has done without co-founder Stacey Lambright. “Stacey is instrumental in keeping FFBF going and growing.”
Connie’s future dreams for FFBF are big. “I would like to open talks about having shelters that allow a person to come with their pets. A lot of these folks could go to a shelter, but they refuse to leave their pets behind. They will feed their pets before themselves.”
Everything that Connie does is important because it is her legacy to others. She lives by a quote that’s on Christian’s grave. “I am, and always will be, a part of all that I have known.” For more details about Faithful Forgotten Best Friends or to volunteer, visit ffbf-columbus.org.