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Nancy Lopez

By Kelly Burgess

Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a mother who inspires and moves us, who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a woman and a mother. Above all, the Mom of the Month is dedicated to her children. Rich or poor, famous or not, she shines as an example of what mothering is all about.

Meet October's Mom of the Month, Nancy Lopez, a professional golfer and mother of four children. While most people know Nancy Lopez is one of the greatest female golfers of all time, few people know that she also is one of the great jugglers of all time. And it isn't golf balls she's juggling, but marriage and four children with a high-profile career on the professional golf circuit. After her husband's heart attack, the family's health became an even greater focus.

It isn't always easy. "Our first child, Ashley, had colic really bad and I was so tired most of the time because I would be up with her all night," Lopez says. "The funny thing is that I played my best golf during that time."

Lopez credits her husband, Ray Knight, with making it possible for the couple to develop a strong relationship. "Ray was very unselfish and traveled with me and was very involved in making it all work," Lopez says. "It was a challenge sometimes, but I always loved having them with me."

To call it a challenge has to be an understatement. At the same time that Lopez was the top money winner on the LPGA golf circuit, Knight was busy with his own athletic career as a major-league baseball player, including being named MVP of the 1986 World Series. Plus, they both made it a point to never miss any activities in which their four children were involved.

After so many years of putting their family front and center, the Lopez/Knight household was thrown a curve ball in 2001 when Knight suffered a heart attack. Although mild, it was devastating for him, not only because he felt it had snuck up on him, but because he couldn't seem to bounce back for the first year or so.

"My daddy had 11 siblings and my mom's from a big family, and none had heart trouble at all," Knight says. "I don't drink or smoke and for me to find out at age 48 that I had an artery that was 100 percent clogged was really tough."

Lopez's family history, on the other hand, wasn't quite as comforting. Both her mother and father had heart problems, and her father died of congestive heart failure not long after Knight's heart attack. She called the two events a wake-up call for her whole family.

"I definitely pay more attention to what foods I'm buying and I've been stocking up more on fruits and pushing more healthful foods rather than just letting the kids eat sweets," Lopez says. "I always had felt that we were fairly healthy, but after Ray's heart attack I also realized there were areas where we could definitely improve."

The diet changes Lopez has instituted are particularly important to Knight because he thinks it was probably his years of eating junk food that led to his heart attack in the first place.

"I left home at age 17 to become a baseball player and when I traveled I just ate junk," Knight says. "Sure, I exercised hard, but I ate just as hard. I think it caught up with me."

What really shook Lopez and Knight up, though, was how much difficulty Knight had in recovering from his heart attack. At 48, he felt like he was 85.

Knight began to worry that he was going to feel old and tired for the rest of his life, but Lopez kept urging him to fight. Finally, Knight found the right combination of medications and began to feel like his old self. Now, he and Lopez, normally very private people, are making public Knight's post-heart-attack struggle with a campaign called Back in Full Swing. Sponsored by Glaxo Smith Kline, makers of Coreg, a medication to help manage post-heart-attack hypertension and which Ray credits in part to his turnaround, the message is that a heart attack doesn't have to mean the end of an active life.

Lopez also encourages Knight to stay healthy by keeping his competitive edge alive. They keep active with walks, shared golf outings and even matching treadmills. They also compete to see who has the lowest blood pressure. Lopez says she sees it not just as a partnership, but as something any family would do to stay together.