Emeril Salutes a Special Kind of Mom

May 6, 2005 — -- This year Emeril's Mother Day Breakfast in Bed contest is saluting a different kind of mom -- someone who is both mom and dad.

When Dan Lyznicki lost his wife, Ann, suddenly in August 1997 to a rare genetic heart defect called Long Q T Syndrome, his ideal family life was shatttered and he was forced into the role of mom. It was only the cries of his 10-week-old daughter, Abby, and his four other children that pulled him from the chair he slept in night after night when he could not find the strength to return to the bed he shared with his wife.

It wasn't easy trying to follow in his late wife's footsteps -- filling in at PTA meetings, as Brownie cookie mom and as chief minivan shuttler.

That's what Lyznicki's sister-in-law Kay Wallin wants everyone to know. So, she wrote a letter to Emeril nominating him for the Breakfast in Bed Contest.

"My candidate experienced many firsts," Wallin wrote. "How to change diapers, make bottles, cook, clean, wash clothes, host sleepovers, prom dress, graduation dress, sit through hundreds of concerts, ballgames and school conferences. ... My candidate is the most amazing mother on Earth."

Lyznicki's family says it's his turn now.

Armed with breakfast in bed and a weeklong vacation anywhere in the world for Lyznicki and his family from his co-workers, Emeril surprised him first thing this morning at his family's home.

"It's Mother's Day, it's Father's Day, it's everything for you," said Emeril.

Surrounded by his family, neighbors and co-workers, Lyznicki enjoyed Emeril's Breakfast in Bed laid out on a bed placed in his front yard. The menu featured Emeril's bloody mary's, potato cakes with ham and cheesy scrambled eggs, and peach muffins with peach butter.