This is Day 16 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.

Stop in the name of love, before you break my heart…

Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. This was supposed to be an easy post. But it wasn’t. Apparently I suffer from an abundance of love in my life. Love from others. Love of life. I could write about my how much I love going to work every day or how much I love my cat.

You see, when you are sick or troubled, it is this thing called love that helps pull you through. It is how others are your cheerleaders and your support. It is how you can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Because there is something there you love. Because you are loved by someone.

For me, one of those someones is this lady. Aunt Debbi. She and my mom met in college. Her family adopted my mom, and the rest, they say, is history. This woman has never missed anything. She has been there for me (or maybe for my mom) each and every time my body decided that it didn’t like to behave properly. When I watched my dad collapse earlier this year, she wouldn’t let me drive because she knew I couldn’t handle it. When my mom and I don’t see eye to eye, she can usually talk both of us back to sanity.

She speaks French (it’s where I got my love of the language from, even if I don’t ever speak it with her) and loves designer shoes almost as much as me.

I am so very lucky to have her as my Aunt. My godmother. And a pretty awesome mentor. (Even if she calls herself the boring aunt).

I hope all of you have someone in your life who loves you half as much as my aunt loves me and as much as I love her.

Share the positivity on Twitter, Instagram and Google+ with the hashtag #100positivedays. Also, you can sign up to be emailed a recap each week of the challenge.