WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley shared devastating news with his fans earlier today on Facebook, announcing the passing of his mother following a long and arduous battle with dementia. The “Hardcore Legend” penned a heartfelt and detailed tribute on Facebook to honor the woman who shaped his life.
“Goodbye, Mom! It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of my mother’s passing, following a long battle with dementia,” Foley wrote. “My mother was an intensely private person – so much so that I pleaded with WWE not to show her in the crowd at a 1997 MSG show – and I have struggled in trying to decide whether I should make her passing public. Her will specified there would be no visitation, no funeral, not even an obituary – but in the end, we as a family felt it would be good for all of us if there was a tribute of some kind to a remarkable woman.”
Foley detailed the hardships his mother endured, beginning with her birth on a farm in Western New York in 1938. Raised in the shadow of The Great Depression, she learned the value of a dollar out of necessity, a trait that became the legendary “Foley thriftiness.” He recalled childhood memories of a home kept at 56 degrees in the winter and his “64 square-foot room,” illustrating the resilience and practicality she instilled in her children.
Perhaps the most surprising revelation was her secret battle with polio. Foley noted that until a few years ago, he was unaware she had ever suffered from the disease. It wasn’t until she produced a keepsake box with yellowed newspaper clippings that he learned of her months-long fight. In true Foley fashion, he described her victory over the illness with wrestling terminology: “My mother stomped a mudhole in polio’s @*s and walked it dry and grew into a strong, independent woman who became the first member of her family to attend college.”
He concluded his message with a touching farewell: “Goodbye Mom. I love you very much and will always be proud to be Mrs. Foley’s Baby Boy.”
We send our thoughts to the Foley family at this time.
