Why I Relay.....Celebrating one more Birthday....

Okay....Relay....What is Relay for Life?

Why do it? (why not...)

I don't have time? (who does...you find it!)

How do you get yourself roped into these things? (because I believe in it!!! and so should you!)

These are a few questions I get leading up to relay....these are my answers....

Have you ever had that phone call that has stayed with you forever? One that says "it's cancer..."  When I was in the 7th grade a girl in my class became super sick...the only thing I really remember about her getting sick is that it was called Leukemia and she could die...at 12 years old I had NO idea how this would really effect my life...I was not super great friends with this young lady. Our class was really small and we all knew each other...but we didn't hang out together, we were not best friends...so why would this effect me. After she endured treatments, I remember going to her house to take her cinnamon rolls...she was really sick and didn't look the same...she had lost her hair and was bloated in her face from the medication....this made me really sad....by the time we started 8th grade she was in remission, her hair was growing back and we went back to not really being friends....not a major...she was "healed". Life went on as normal....until the end of our sophomore year....this friend was an athlete and was really involved. she had a "friend"...you know the kind...lol..the NON girl kind! haha....her hair was back....life was good.....so it seemed...well for me, I was going thru my own personal 14-15 year old struggles...things were off at home, I was not a happy 14-15 year old teenager...one day I was having a particularly bad day and this friend asked me to walk to school lunch with her and I went...we had - had past issues in our little non friendship and she brought them up and told me she was sorry if she ever made me feel bad and how great she thought it was when I brought her cinnamon rolls a few years ago when she was sick...and other things....I remember when I got home how odd the whole conversation was....I remember talking to my mom about it. I wouldn't say were ever got super close...but I can honestly say I thought of her as a friend. It was a few months after this conversation that she found out that her Cancer was back.....she passed away on the 21st of May, just a few days before school got out...from a side effect to the Chemo treatments....I was working cleaning rooms and I still remember when my mom came and got me from work to tell me the news.....Like I have said before...we were not best friends....this was my first cancer related death that I can remember. I still think about her,  our high school graduation was 20 years ago this year...she has been gone 22 years, I wonder about the what if's.......I walk for my friend Marlene....

Then, in 1990, just after my high school graduation (seriously the day after) we were in the hospital room with my grandpa McDonald when he was told he had advanced Lung Cancer. To this day, I cannot listen to "There is a Tear in my Beer" by Hank Williams Sr without thinking about my grandpa. I moved to Kanab and lived with grandma and grandpa that week..my goal was to find a job and help grandma...but I did a lot of sitting with grandpa. I was there when he couldn't see me anymore....at this time in my life I can only remember seeing my grandma cry twice. (the first) was one day when I had been out job hunting,  I  had come back to the house, Grandma and Grandpa were sitting on the couch with their heads together just a crying and singing together...the song they were singing was on the radio...

"There's a tear in my beer 'cause I'm cryin' for you,dear you are on my lonely mind."

This really broke my heart but it is one of the many memories that are all my own. We knew Grandpa was dying and to see them sitting together in this sad little way saying their own goodbyes made me so sad, i sat on the porch and cried...they never saw me......grandpa died 3 days later, 6 days after I turned 18...at home surrounded by his family! We all got to go in and talk to him, talk about him...he was very loved and is very missed. When grandma came out and told us he was gone, I will never forget, my cousin Mike (7 at the time) asked his dad if he could give grandpa a blessing so he could come back to life. Mike to has since passed (non cancer related). That was the 2nd next time I saw grandma cry - was that night.  I walk for my grandpa McDonald

In college, my mom's sister had cancer removed from her body, never had treatment and lived to raise her family...I walk for my Aunt LaVee....after I was married, her son was diagnosed with Colon cancer...he was lucky though...they caught it before it got him....he has a darling family. I walk for Raymond and his family....

I walk for grandma Rada Maxwell, she died before my husband was even thought of....I walk for the grandma my husband never knew and the mother my mother inlaw dearly misses....

In between the now and the time grandpa passed, my mom and my sister have both had cancer scares....I walk for my mom and my sister - They are survivors.... Love you guys!

I have cried and grieved for many friends who have lost their lives to this disease.  I walk for them and their families....

I have many friends who are battling this disease now, friends who are neighbors, scrapbook buddies, parents of my husbands students...some who have been in remission...but no longer ...I walk for them....

I have friends I know and love who are just finding out they have some type of cancer and are dealing with all the "If's"....I walk for them....

I have friends who are Cancer Free SURVIVORS .....I walk for them..

In 2001 one of my husbands football boy's mom was given the news that she had stomach cancer....She was in our ward, her sister is a neighbor, my husband taught her kids in school. She passed in 2005.  I walk for Michelle....her sister in-law is now going thru treatments now as we speak....I think of her and pray for her...I walk for Debbie...

In 2008 my Sweet Aunt Judy died from a rare liver cancer....one where there is no known treatment for....by the time they found it....it was already terminal....she lived just over 1 year....I had the honor of her coming and staying at my house a few times in that year. My kids were able to get to know her a little bit...she was an amazing women and a survivor of life! I miss her every day! She was like an aunt/mom/grandma all rolled into one for all of us...I walk for Aunt Judy......

I have a friend I have never met....I know her only thru words on the computer and our love of CTMH...her family is going thru this cancer scare NOW....I walk for her family.....I walk for Fred.....

WHY I WALK....WHY NOT!!!.....

I walk because you never know when it is you that will hear the dreaded words "you have cancer"....I walk for a CURE so if and when someone I love hears those dreaded words, they will also hear "but we can treat it and there is a cure."

I walk because for one night of sore feet and many inspiring tears it is WORTH it!

So if you have NEVER been to a Relay For Life Cancer Walk....COME this weekend to Gunnison....I guarantee you will be lifted like never before...check it out and maybe next year you will be then newest team at the Gunnison Relay....COME this Friday the 25th at 6 pm....bring the family ...have dinner...stay for the luminary lighting....COME and SUPPORT Relay For Life!!! Help everyone CELEBRATE one more Birthday....

**Had pictures...couldn't get them to download..... :P