Here is how Tyanna Foundation co-founder Anne O’Brien describes the organization’s namesake – her mother, Tyanna Barre O’Brien

I feel very lucky to have had the mom I did.  She taught me to be humble and appreciate what I have been given, but most of all to give back.  My mom was a “serial volunteerer” if there is such a thing.  My sisters and I were dragged around to committee meetings, group homes, soup kitchens, PTA meetings…you name it, she tried to fix it, or at least make it better.  She was also ALWAYS there.  I mean that in a good way and a bad way.  She’d show up at school to deliver your lunch because you forgot it, and wouldn’t just leave it in the office.  She’d deliver it to you in your classroom, hand it to the teacher with a smart comment like –  “and your mom says stop chomping your gum” or “sit up straight.”

But she was also there whenever we needed her and is the inspiration for my sister Sara’s song – “Play it by Ear.”  That song really describes the way we lived.  Don’t take yourself too seriously, spend time on the things that are important, and don’t stress about life – just play it by ear.

I could tell story after story but maybe we’ll change this part of the website quarterly and my sisters and I will each tell some funny story that taught us a good lesson.  We say people are amazing but she truly was.  She made people’s lives better on a daily basis, and I can only hope to live up to half of what she accomplished in her short life.