Revisiting “Why We Walk…”
I find myself still decluttering after the move (will I EVER be done?) and came across a CD of videos my daughter, Shelley, had created and found this treasure. Thank you, Shelley, for all your encouragement over the years, for your energy and commitment to furthering breast cancer awareness. Why We...
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Each of us has our own way of dealing with a cancer diagnosis in the family. Some of us are nearly immobilized by fear; some cling to denial and others, like my first-born, find a way to fight back. My older daughter was in Mexico studying for much of the time while I was enduring chemotherapy. She returned to Atlanta when I was at the mid-point of my treatments. On one of her visits to me in NC, she shared with me that she was going to walk in the AVON 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk which was 60 miles. She explained that it was a way she felt she could fight back by raising awareness and money for breast cancer research so that others would not have to endure what breast cancer patients have to endure. Now, she was not a runner or even a regular walker. Sixty miles is a long way, I offered, but she was determined she could do it. “Mom, how bad can it be when I compare it to what you have gone through these four months!?” So the training, talking, encouraging others to join her began. All this was going on as she continued working on her 2nd degree in college. She kept me posted throughout her training and fundraising by getting people to sponsor her as I continued my chemo treatments…each of us pushing ourselves…her to go further…me…to manage my side effects of nausea and extreme fatigue. Both of us working to stay strong. My third treatment was the most difficult with the nausea being the most horrendous causing me to need IV fluids three days the following week. One more treatment to go…I can do this became my mantra!! My other daughter became engaged and planned a wedding for November. Surely I would be stronger by then. Perhaps, I would even have hair again! I did not tell my Atlanta daughter that I was planning to surprise her in Atlanta the weekend of the Walk. I prayed and prayed that I would be strong enough to drive the 4 hours to Atlanta. My son-in-law was to keep the secret. My doctor helped me out by giving me some steroids prior to my last treatment to help with the side effects. Boy, did that work!!! Not only did I not have the bad nausea, I had appetite and could eat!! Woo-hoo! I got through my last treatment which gave me a few weeks to recuperate and I drove to Atlanta to surprise my little Energizer Bunny! I arrived the day after she started. The next day, we rode the route shouting encouragement to the walkers making certain she was not in particular groups to spoil the fun. We knew where their “lunch stop” was to be so we went there planning the surprise. I was so pumped I felt like I could have done the walk. (However, that definitely was not the case!) My son-in-law found me a chair and I sat along the side of the road where she would enter the “lunch stop.” We watched and cheered hundreds by hundreds who arrived ready for their break. How exciting this was. I was wearing my favorite cap of black sequins with big gold-sequin stars which I called my “Celebrate Life” cap. Finally, I stepped out into the road on top of the hill they were climbing, looked at the next group coming forward and I spied her. She was leading the pack, on the very front of her group. I raised my hand and I saw her hold her arms...
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