My mom passed away at 41 from diabetes. And I'm 42 thank you. I didn't want to do that to my son. So any time I was at the gym that thing that helped me do that last squat was my son calling some other woman mommy. And that would just give me that extra oomph to do that last squat. I want to be around for him.
No matter how close to personal experience a story might be inevitably you are going to get to a part that isn't yours and actually whether it happened or not becomes irrelevant. It is all about choosing the right words.