it is really important to have an insanely supportive husband when working 30 days straight (including three 30+ hour shifts). eric's the bomb. he watched our two very active boys for three weekends in a row and did not complain once.
wanna know the count for my three events?
- dollars raised: $184,000+
- # participants: 890
- # luminaria lit to honor/remember a loved one who has faced cancer: 1,578
- # survivors celebrated: 111
- # times cried in the last three weekend: countless
- total hours slept in the last three saturdays: 4.5
- being completely done with all of my events: priceless
i cannot even say how much it meant to me if you came out to my event (or were part of a team - hi, j, kelly and ariel!). i loooooved seeing my friends and family. real people i didn't have to please or coddle. plus it's just nice that the people you love can see what the heck you've been doing that you had to be away from them for so many nights.
it goes without saying that i'm exhausted. physically, mentally, emotionally. i think my heart broke a thousand times because of all of the personal accounts that have been shared with me as to why someone participates in Relay For Life. at my first event, i glanced over at the survivor registration area and saw two small kids in purple survivor t-shirts. turns out, they are brother and sister and both under the age of six. i hate cancer. i hate that those kids have to go through cancer. i hate that their mother has to watch her kids suffer. one of my oxford team captains died 8 days before my last relay. he had been diagnosed with brain cancer not 3 weeks ago. his family still came to the relay with t-shirts that said "laps for luke." another woman came to the oxford relay to buy a luminaria bag for her husband that had died the day before. i am continually amazed at what Relay For Life does for people. it gives people hope and a place to be emotionally vulnerable with others in the same situation.
anyway...we're working really hard for you (yes, you!) so that you won't get cancer, and if you do get cancer, we're working really hard to make the cancer experience as comfortable and short as possible. so please: practice sun safety. quit smoking. get your cancer screenings. practice early detection methods. i don't ever want to have to light a luminaria bag for you.