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Shelley Unser listens as her daughter Cody Unser (not pictured) speaks at Riley Hospital for Children, Wednesday, May 21, 2008.

She was 59. And she was remarkable. No ane always argued that, not even her ex-husband, Al Unser Jr.

When Shelley Unser died Aug. 15, she was remembered and praised for existence a tremendous mom to her four grown children. A philanthropist. A woman who devoted her life to making the lives of others a fiddling better.

The side annotation, the P.S. on that letter of her life: She was married for 17 years to the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner.

And if words from an ex-husband can speak volumes to who a woman is, they did in the tweet Unser posted after Shelley's death that read, in office:

"I was extremely saddened past this news. I was married to Shelley for 17 years and take 4 beautiful children with her and yet loved her very much."

Shelley Unser, whose funeral volition be held this weekend, died from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It is an inflammatory lung disease that affects airflow from the lungs.

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No one in the Unser family unit tried to hide why Shelley Unser died. She was a smoker. She had e'er been a smoker. But she had been trying to quit.

"My mom…was working on quitting – but it merely didn't happen soon enough," Al Unser III, the Unsers' oldest child, told the Albuquerque Journal. After her divorce from Al Unser Jr., Shelley raised her children in New Mexico. "It's been a very large stupor for us."

According to Unser Iii, his mother died suddenly from lung failure.

But that is not what people will be talking about this weekend. They volition be talking about a mother's deep devotion to her daughter -- that flourished into something wonderful.

It was 1999 and Cody Unser, the daughter of Al Unser Jr., and Shelley, was playing basketball at school. She was 12.

Ane minute she was running the court. The next, she was paralyzed.

Somewhen, she was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder that attacks the spinal string. She has been paralyzed from the chest down since but has use of her artillery.

Together, Shelley Unser and Cody worked to bring attending to the disease, starting the Cody Unser First Pace Foundation, based in New Mexico.

Bob Walters, the onetime public relations director at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was part of the squad that started the foundation.

"Shelley was a really creative, amazing gal," said Walters, who lives in Fishers and will nourish her funeral this weekend. "We were a expert team, we 3. Of class, without Cody, yous had null."

Cody Unser posted to her foundation's folio subsequently her mother's death:

"She gave me wings when I became paralyzed and poured her unabridged being in this absolutely fulfilling purpose in helping others with Transverse Myelitis and all disabilities. Her affect has been the largest ripple and her legacy will live on forever."

In lieu of flowers or gifts, Cody Unser asks for donations to The Cody Unser Kickoff Step Foundation.

Email Dana Benbow at dbenbow@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @DanaBenbow.