If only her expertise had come in time to save her mom’s life.

Susan Perry Starcks Rodriguez was a textbook case, too: A chain smoker for more than 30 years. The daughter of a cardiomyopathy patient. She ate fatty foods and rarely exercised. She hadn’t been to a doctor in years and refused to go, even as fatigue took an ever-tightening grip on her life.

Susan also had become skilled at denying her failing health.

She was “only” 46, and she was skinny, so those unhealthy meals seemed to have done no harm. Makeup brightened the ashen tone her skin was turning. She laughed off her diminishing energy, chalking it up to menopause or the stress of being a single mom raising twin daughters while her career was in flux.

Christin spoke with her mom every day and they ate together every Sunday night. As her mother’s health problems became more evident, she continually urged her to see a doctor.

“The way she was raised, you only went to the doctor if you were dying,” Christin says. “But I would tell her, `You can’t take care of the girls if you’re not taking care of yourself.’”

Then came the day Susan felt a lump in her throat that wouldn’t go away; it was like an oversized pill got stuck halfway down. That night, she gasped for air before falling asleep. She was awakened at 3 a.m. by the feeling that stone tablets were piled on her chest. Finally, she was ready for help.

Christin took her mom to an emergency room. More than a week later, a cardiologist examined Susan and said, “You’re having a heart attack.”

Susan had such advanced cardiomyopathy that she needed a transplant. Three months later, she collapsed in front of her home and couldn’t be saved.

Her twins, Briana and Kiana, were a week shy of their 11^th birthday. They were so distraught that they spent the next seven months sleeping in the same bed as Christin, who at 24 was forced to go from big sis to fill-in mom.

“That first year was a doozie,” Christin says. “We were sad, but we never mourned her loss. We laughed and talked about her every day. Then I started to think, `How are we going to use this?’”

Christin and the girls joined the Heart Walk in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2008. They’ve ratcheted up their involvement with the American Heart Association ever since in hopes that their story will serve as a cautionary tale.

Susan’s story is a powerful reminder that all women should evaluate their heart health, especially those whose heredity or lifestyle put them at a higher risk, because heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, claiming more lives each year than all forms of cancer combined. Those facts are the core message of the AHA’s Go Red for Women movement and National Wear Red Day on Feb. 3.

Whether Christin speaks to two people or 2,000, her message is the same: Don’t wait until it’s too late.

“Heart disease doesn’t have a face,” she says. “Anyone you see on the street, the probability that they are on the road to heart disease is really high. It’s all about prevention, prevention, prevention.”

Christin tells young people to realize their lifestyle choices now will eventually catch up to them. To parents of young children, Christin reiterates the message she gave her mom: The best thing you can do for your children is take care of yourself.

Christin and the girls, who are now 16, understand their family history puts them at a higher risk. So they watch what they eat and get checkups every year. Christin happily notes how much better she feels at 30 than she did at 20, even though her life is as busy as ever.

In addition to volunteering for the AHA, Christin works full-time and is taking classes – similar to the hectic schedule she kept before her mom died.

There is one change. She’s no longer trying to become a court stenographer.

Now she’s studying to becoming a nurse.