For These Women, I Walk

10 years ago today I was in Atkinson, IL with my boyfriend’s (now my husband) family. His Mom had fought cancer for 7 years- starting with breast cancer but finally spreading to her lungs. Her condition had worsened and everyone gathered at Dave’s parent’s home. I hardly knew Dave’s Mom, Sallye. Dave and I started dating in August and I had met her for the first time in October but I did know she had given this fight her all. Now, she was unconscious from morphine in a hospital bed in the living room of her home. Sallye continued to fight until her all of her children made it home and her older sister came down from Wisconsin and then she passed with her family around her.

My Aunt Peggy also fought the fight for well over 10 years. She lost her beautiful blond hair that I loved to comb when I was a little girl but she never lost her gusto for life. Nothing stopped her. She traveled everywhere, volunteered at the elementary school down the street, raised a son, and gardened- all with no complaints. Her feet would be the size of footballs after chemo but she would put on slippers and just keep going. She had lost her husband to cancer 16 years prior and now was faced leaving her son with no parents but she was never bitter or angry. She lived everyday happy and fulfilled- an amazing lesson that I need to keep closer to my heart.

And the AMAZING survivors I know: Linda Gilkerson, my Aunt Betty Jo, Glenda Forgan, and LuAnn Linker- all incredible testaments of courage and strong will. I feel fortunate to know so many survivors, women who remind me on a daily basis that cancer does not have to be a death sentence and that you can overcome. It also reminds me that breast cancer does not discriminate, no one is immune and I must be diligent in protecting and educating myself. I turned 40 last August and I will have my first mammogram later this spring.

I hope I am never faced with cancer of any sort. I know that my progress towards wellness the past 13 weeks is a huge benefit in prevention. But if I am faced with something, I only hope I can call on the spirit of all these women to overcome the challenge. It is in honor of these women, and all women like them, that I walk the Race for the Cure on Saturday.