In her final words, Mia expressed resonant hope:

"I hope that my life will have mattered and made a difference for the nation I love and the family and friends I adore. I hope you will see the America I know in the years ahead, that you will hear my words in the whisper of the wind of freedom..."

Whether you agreed with her politics or not, her story reminds us that leadership is ultimately about character and conviction.

Even facing her mortality, Mia's message wasn't about division or despair, but about unity and hope: "Some have forgotten the math of America—whenever you divide you diminish. What I know is that the goodness and compassion of the American people is a multiplier that simply cannot be measured."

In her final essay titled "My Living Wish for the America I Know," bit.ly/MiaLoveMyLiv...
Mia wrote: "The America I know is great—not because government made it great but because ordinary citizens like me, like my parents and like you are given the opportunity every day to do extraordinary things."

Two weeks ago, Mia announced in a moving Deseret News essay that her cancer was no longer responding to treatment and that she would soon die.

She used this final opportunity to write a love letter to America.

What struck me most during our extended conversation (I've shared a 5-minute excerpt here) was Mia's authentic belief in America's promise—not as an abstract concept, but as the lived reality her Haitian immigrant parents experienced arriving with just $10 in their pockets.

In 2018, I had the privilege of sitting down with Mia at the kitchen table in her home in Utah.

While I didn't agree with her politics, I was inspired by her resilience in facing both the challenges of a female leader breaking barriers as well as her personal health battles.

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