When Lori Sepich began experiencing afternoon headaches at 17, she didn’t think much of it. However, a visit to the pediatrician revealed she was suffering from extreme hypertension and at risk for stroke. “They made me take medication before I could leave that day,” Lori recalls, though at 17 she “didn’t care and was much more interested in graduating and doing high school things.”
Despite being prescribed high blood pressure medication for the genetic condition, Lori took the pills haphazardly until 34. During a routine doctor visit, she lied when asked about taking her medicine regularly, as the numbers on her chart revealed another story.
“He explained what damage a stroke would do to me at that age and that I was playing with fire,” she recalls. “It was the intensity with which he talked to me. I cried because I was mad at myself.”
A lifelong gym-goer, Lori finally committed to bringing her blood pressure down through medication, though she picked up other bad habits along the way, like smoking.
In 2005, at 8:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday, Lori woke up with extreme pain shooting down both arms, chest pressure, and intense nausea. “I knew I was having a heart attack, but I was in such denial that I just stayed in bed crying, praying to God I would live,” she says. When the sensation returned the next day, Lori took her time getting to the emergency room. After alerting staff to her condition, they asked if she smoked. She told them, “I quit five minutes before I walked in the door.”
Lori was treated for her heart attack with major blockage, and six stents were placed. She was released a week later. “I felt so much guilt inside about having done this to myself through denial and not taking care of my heart health.”
Thirteen years later, after starting a new job, Lori suffered another heart attack, this time with a nearly 100% blockage in her widowmaker, and three more stents were placed.
“I came out of that with so much depression and guilt,” Lori shares. Six months later, her work — major sponsors of the American Heart Association — invited her to a Go Red for Women luncheon. “I went because my work asked me to, but I wanted no part in it. I was still in denial and scared. Nobody knew about my heart attack.”
Sitting in her turquoise outfit amidst a sea of red outfits in solidarity with the cause, Lori heard the first woman share her survival story, and it hit home. “I realized that was my story. Listening to her empowered me to share what I had denied for so long.”
After being encouraged to share her story by the ladies of the American Heart Association, Memphis chapter, Lori was embraced by them and invited to volunteer at fashion shows, luncheons, and other survivor events, watching attendance and support grow.
Recently, Lori was selected as part of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women 2026 Class of Survivors, representing the cause nationwide.
“It’s a huge honor for me,” she says. Lori founded Your Heart Rocks, where she and her friends hand-paint hearts on rocks and distribute them at cardiac rehab at St. Francis Hospital and other places around the community. “It’s cool. I get to be part of their journey by sharing this and what it means.”
Her mission is simple: love your heart and love yourself.
FB: Lori Sepich / IG: yourheartrocksmem
By Shlomit Ovadia
Photo by Tindall Stephens
