For the Mucciarone family, it wasn’t news of the coronavirus pandemic that upended their lives in 2020 — Hambden Township resident Allison Mucciarone began homeschooling her children three years ago.
For the Mucciarone family, it wasn’t news of the coronavirus pandemic that upended their lives in 2020 — Hambden Township resident Allison Mucciarone began homeschooling her children three years ago.
Rather, it was a phone call to Allison from her doctor at the end of August 2020. The 33-year-old mother of three was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
For six days, Allison knew she had cervical cancer, but not how severe it was or what treatment she would need.
“All I knew is I got the phone call and, ‘We’re sorry, we tried to clean up your cervix, but cancer has already invaded it.’ But you don’t know anything else,” she said in a phone interview.
After a long six days, Allison learned from her oncologist her cancer was stage one. She had a hysterectomy on Oct. 5.
She began to research what would help her recover from the hysterectomy and she learned it was not common for a 33-year-old woman to have cervical cancer.
And for people who had a friend or loved one who went through the same procedures, there was little guidance on what they could give an individual that would be meaningful and helpful.
“Wheels started to turn that I needed to figure this out for myself and to help somebody else,” Allison said.
After recovering from her surgery, she launched the business LoveWithinUs on Nov. 1 — an Etsy shop that sells care boxes for individuals to gift others going through a range of life events, such as grieving the death of a loved one or recovering from a hysterectomy.
“As each day passes, we meet more people. We are exposed to new stories and what is going on in the people’s lives around us. There are people we want to show that we are there. We want to support them. Share love with them,” Allison wrote in the “about” section for the LoveWithinUs shop. “But how and what to share can be confusing and leave you a bit unsure. I wanted to take the guessing game out of that.”
Each care box for LoveWithinUs contains a mug or cup with a positive affirmation and natural products such as sugar scrubs, roller blends, Epsom salts and oils made by Allison. The elements of a LoveWithinUs care box have been tested for years by the Mucciarone family.
They describe themselves as a “natural minded family” who use homemade products made of natural ingredients for medicinal purposes. Allison said four years ago, her family began to learn about natural foods and progressed to natural medicines, which she would make for her family to use when recovering from ailments.
For example, her nausea roller blend helped her get out of the hospital after the hysterectomy, as it was the only thing that quelled her nausea enough to stand and move around her room.
“It’s just kinda been something I’ve done for us and then played around with until I perfected it to sell to somebody else,” she said.
Her family also uses positive affirmations in their day-to-day lives, including with her children.
“My son has a hard time sleeping sometimes, so we started his positive affirmations before bed, so just saying, ‘I am a good sleeper. I am capable of sleeping. I’m good at going to bed,’” she said. “The more we did that, he has been sleeping through the night, not getting up because he’s training his mind that he’s capable of sleeping. “
As Allison underwent her surgery and recovery, she maintained as positive and healthy of an attitude as she could.
“There’s just something about her that in a situation like this, you’d never know she’s going through the most difficult time of her life,” said her husband, Mike Mucciarone.
Allison continued starting her mornings with a mindfulness journal and believing the message of the day.
“I knew that those were the cards I was dealt and it would be okay. We would figure it out, no matter which way it went,” she said. “I knew in my heart that we were going to figure it out and I was going to figure it out. I was going to figure it out because I have three little kids that really need their mom.”
Sending a LoveWithinUs care box only requires a few clicks and a message Allison will personally write in a card.
“That was something that I went back and forth on, but now every time I get an order and read the message, I’m like the cards are a must because it’s something so important coming from the gifter to the recipient,” she said.
Prior to the launch of the site, Mike asked Allison what her goal was for LoveWithinUs.
“If I sell one cancer or hysterectomy box, that would be really cool,” she responded.
Mike said he knew she would sell more than one.
“I urged her and laughed, and said, ‘I know you’re going to sell more than one, what’s a goal?’” Mike recalled during a phone interview.
Allison said 12 because she had bought 12 glass jars for the boxes.
Mike and Allison said that goal was met within two days. As of Jan. 8, LoveWithinUs has 340 sales, according to Etsy.
Now, while juggling being a mom, Allison prepares care boxes during the day, which begins and ends with a white board where she tracks her orders and supplies.
“It’s kind of just fit into the days now,” she said.
In the morning, Mike takes finished boxes to the post office as “the postman of LoveWithinUs.”
Their kids are also excited about Allison’s business. Mike said they get excited to hear the “Cha-ching!” sound on Allison’s phone when an Etsy order is placed.
All the customers of LoveWithinUs have been strangers, Allison said.
“Every sale that I have made has been I guess based on the shop and the product. But I have built some relationships,” she said, adding some costumers have reached out to talk to her more after receiving their boxes.
LoveWithinUs has 18 products on its Etsy shop, including a COVID-19 care box, which has many positive reviews.
Rivka Lieber wrote she sent a COVID box to a friend whose entire family contracted the coronavirus.
“My friend texted me and told me that the essential oils stopped her father’s coughing!” Lieber wrote.
Another reviewer, Trinity Cernohous, wrote, “Thank you so much for your message and fast shipping! Her happiness today from your package meant the world to me!”
Allison continues to develop new care box ideas by thinking of taboo and uncommon topics and situations where individuals want to help, but don’t know how.
Allison has experienced a miscarriage — another experience not often talked about — which helped inspire one of LoveWithinUs’s most popular care boxes: a fertility box for women having trouble getting pregnant.
“We realized it became popular because when women can’t get pregnant, they talk about it with their girlfriends, but then you don’t really know what to do,” Allison said. “You listen, but it’s not like you’re going to send flowers to someone who can’t get pregnant.”
She is also spreading awareness and information about cervical cancer on her Instagram page lovewithin_us in addition to updates about LoveWithinUs care boxes.
On her Jan. 5 post, Allison shared images of her recovery from her hysterectomy in honor of cervical cancer awareness month.
“2020 is not the year to NOT talk about. If anything, it’s THE year to talk about. It’s been hard to say the least. It’s rocked more of our lives than one can count … also in countless ways,” Allison wrote on the post’s captions. “Let’s learn and talk about it. Let’s share. Let’s support one another.”
