Leslie Taylor

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The day after Yolanda King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s oldest child, died suddenly from apparent heart problems at the age of 51, an e-mail from an old college friend appeared in my inbox.

"Take care of yourself," the subject line read.

The e-mail was from my friend Andrea Collier, a fellow Indiana University journalism grad, the woman who introduced me to the man I would marry, and who years later would counsel me in the painful role of caregiver during the months before his death at age 47.

Andrea had found a niche in writing and speaking about health and health policy issues. She'd written two books, one a moving account of caring for her mother as she battled stage four ovarian cancer, and another titled "The Black Woman's Guide to Black Men's Health," co-authored with a physician.

So the subject line of her message did not surprise me. It was Andrea, preaching health and wellness by e-mail instead of one of her usual "Hey girl" phone calls.

It was not.

"A couple of weeks ago I did an interview with Yolanda King on heart disease and stroke," Andrea wrote in the e-mail, sent to a group of friends and colleagues. "She was a spokesperson for the American Health Association, because her mother had suffered a stroke. I woke up Wednesday to several e-mails telling me that she died of a heart attack.

"My editor tells me that I probably did the last interview with her. What she had to say was important on its own, but when you think that less than a month after the interview she would die from the very thing she was trying to prevent, it is stunning."

Andrea went on to write that she was honored to have been allowed a conversation with Yolanda King about her relationship with her mother and about her mother's illness. They talked about the stress her mother faced and how her mother struggled to manage it; about the changes her mother had made in her diet.

"Yolanda and I had a lot in common," Andrea wrote. "We were both momma's girls. We both lost our mothers to ovarian cancer. And Yolanda was 51 when she died -- I will be 51 this year."

I realized then the intent of Andrea's e-mail. She'd had a wake-up call and wanted to rouse a similar health awakening in other women.

She'd just had her annual physical. She said she needed to lose some weight. She needed to exercise. She needed to push away from the ice cream. She has high blood pressure, for which she takes medication. Her cholesterol is high, putting her at risk for cardiovascular disease.

"These are all the things [Yolanda King] and I talked about during my time with her," Andrea wrote. "And now she's gone of the disease we talked about. Needless to say, she got my attention.

"Let this be a wake-up call, if you need one. Call your doctor and get an appointment to check your blood pressure and cholesterol. If you smoke, stop. If you are not exercising and moving, start today. Put the fried foods down. Make yourself a student of your body and how it works."

I forwarded Andrea's e-mail to my mother, my sisters, my friends. And I was not alone. Other women who'd received the e-mail passed it along to their family members and friends, until it took on the life of a chain letter.

"The response was overwhelming," Andrea said when I called her this week. "I got hundreds of e-mails back from people and had no idea who they were. Radio stations were calling. I did a couple newspaper interviews. I got some speaking engagements from it. It was really fascinating."

Andrea said she'd told someone recently that she was probably done with writing about health. I asked her why. She gave me a response, then quickly deemed it unfit for publication in a family newspaper. Let's just say that one can grow weary of writing stories about the body and its functions.

But Andrea now is convinced she doesn't write enough about health and wellness.

"I am sure I have much more work left to do. In another way, Yolanda King has given much -- in ways she would have never expected."

Taylor is a member of The Roanoke Times editorial board.