RIO RANCHO, N.M. – A beloved teacher who served families in her Rio Rancho community for decades now needs some help of her own. 

Mary Cunningham retired in May, stepping in to an exciting new chapter of her life with her family cheering her on. But last week, Mary suffered a stroke. 

If you were one of Mrs. Cunningham’s students, you knew you had someone in your corner for life. 

“Even have students coming back after graduating high school and visiting her saying, ‘Hey you were my favorite teacher growing up,’ even though it was kindergarten,” said Daniel Cunningham, Mary’s son.

Mary’s passion for teaching led to a more than 25 year career with Rio Rancho Public Schools. She stuck to kindergarten and pre-K classrooms. Most recently spending more than a decade at Shining Stars Preschool.

Her daughter Rachel Wilkinson and son Daniel say she found her calling.

“She has this magnetic energy with kids, our kids can vouch for that. Grandma is just the favorite, and she’s just a gentle soul,” said Wilkinson.

Their mom stepped out of the classroom and into retirement in May. She was looking forward to spending more time with her family, including her treasured grandkids.

But she was with her grandson at Walmart last week when suddenly something wasn’t right. 

“There’s two different types of strokes, and unfortunately she had the worse of the two. The bleeding went all the way to the thalamus which is located centrally in your brain, and that’s not good,” said Wilkinson.

Mary was rushed to UNM hospital, where she’s spent a week in the neuroscience intensive care unit. The first few days were touch and go. She had an operation for her brain swelling and was on a ventilator.

“It’s really unfortunate that she just retired and the situation like this happened, it’s awful,” said Daniel and Wilkinson.

Rachel and Daniel say she is slowly improving, but doctors say there could be permanent damage. 

“It’s just heartbreaking to see this is now an obstacle for her, you know, maybe we’re not sure. But hopefully she can return to some type of normalcy,” said Wilkinson.

Now her kids are asking for help from the other kids and families who Mary has made her own over the years. They started a GoFundMe page for medical expenses, and say if you can’t help with that:

“Please keep sending prayers, please keep praying,`they’re working right now.”