Last May, Lori Raimondo set off on a cross-country trek in search of one dollar for every day her mother Lorraine battled breast cancer.

She called her 10,344-mile excursion Road to a Cure. Her goal was to raise $9,490. She ended up with nearly $14,000. She succeeded. She exceeded. And she donated every cent to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Raimondo's driving journey is long over. But our collective breast cancer journey is not. And so Raimondo, in honor of her mother on this Mother's Day, asks friends and family and strangers alike to continue contributing to the breast cancer cause so that the road to a cure may one day come to an end.

Raimondo is accepting donations on her website. She will continue to pass on everything she gathers to help fund breast cancer research.

Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson died Monday in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the age of 52. Hunt Lieberson battled breast cancer in the recent past and had canceled performances in 2005 and 2006 due to back problems -- yet no one was prepared for her death, which occured at her home with her husband by her side. The music world is shocked by her passing. There were no obvious warning signs because Hunt Lieberson often kept her health matters private. No public announcement regarding cause of death has been released.

Known for her beautiful voice -- and a repertoire that ranged from Baroque to contemporary -- the singer, a native of the San Francisco Bay area, began her career as a violist and later became a recitalist, a concert singer, and an operatic performer. She was powerful and polished in her unconventional opera delivery, says Richard Gaddes, director of the Santa Fe opera. She could take her audiences to depths so intense and so true, and her level of commitment will be very difficult to match. She was in a class of her own.