People some times still surprise me. For purely selfish reasons, I volunteered to man a phone last night for a fund raiser for the local Norris Cotton Cancer center radio-thon. I've always believed that while I may not have a lot to offer people, and I am weary of strangers solicitation, I should find a way to give back to the community. I grew up volunteering at the hospital, with extended time on the pediatric floor, so when I got an email asking for volunteers to help man phones for the same hospital, I thought, hey this is nothing really, I can do this. I think in my mind, it makes me feel better about having a relatively good life.
Let me give you a little background.
I lost my grandmother (on my father's side) to cancer at a young age, but I was still old enough to understand what was going on. In those days Cancer was still a bit of an unspoken disease, and with my family, we have a tendency not to address some of the harder issues. I was young, visiting my grandparents with my mom and sister, and saw a book about cancer. The book wasn't on the coffee table per say, but it wasn't locked and hidden under a bed. I didn't touch the book, I just stared at the cover. When my mom, sister and I were back in the car, I asked if Grandma had cancer. The car went silent. I don't know why I knew it was my grammy. My mother very quietly asked why I thought that, to which I responded that I saw the book about it. She said, yes grammy has cancer. I was quiet for a moment. I then asked if grammy used to smoke, because in my mind that's the only way people got cancer. My grandmother had never smoked, and so I was blown away by her having cancer. I went on with my litany of questions, which if you know me now (ahem...hg) I am still that way. Endless questioning. When my grandmother passed away, we (as a family) never discussed cancer again.
I'd like to say that was the only time Cancer affected me, or my family, but sadly it wasn't. I lost a school teacher to cancer a few years later. But the hardest time for my family came last year.
As per tradition, our family had assembled at the Olive Garden to celebrate a birthday, and at the end of the meal when we were all getting ready to leave my father asked us (outside) to wait a moment. My father, he doesn't cry, almost ever. He didn't cry, but I could see him containing himself as he announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He went on to discuss more details, but I had a hard time getting beyond "my dad has cancer". He under went treatment, and while I don't think Oncologist ever use the word "cured" it's currently in remission.
A couple months ago, we found out that a friend of HG's son who is only 3 was diagnosed with a rare Leukemia. Cole had what was believe to have been a sprained ankle, and the doctors had said to wrap it, etc. The normal treatment for sprains/pulls. However his pain increased to the point where he stopped wanting to walk and started crawling again. Cole' s parents brought him back to the Dr, and after some extensive test, were informed that he had Leukemia. Devastation ensued. However, Cole and his parents continued to put up a strong front, he began aggressive treatment and currently all his blood cell counts look great, and the bad markers are all but gone. When Cole lost half of his hair, his mom asked him if he wanted to shave the rest off. Cole said yes, they shaved his head and then the next morning when Cole woke up he decided he wanted his hair back. Cute little kid. Cole's mom said but you look like ....... from sesame street.. (Cole) "Cool!". And now he's happy with his shaved head.
Anyway, last night during the radio-thon, we had tons of great callers but there are a few that stuck with me. One caller (who was understandably upset) called to make a donation of $400, he went on to tell me that he had lost 4 members of his family to cancer so he was donating $100 for each person. I can't imagine. There was also a father and his 2 year old daughter who actually came into the room to do an interview on air, and his daughter had leukemia, was in treatment, and was scheduled to be under treatment for possibly the next two years. This little girl was stunning, she had no hair because of the treatment, but she had the biggest beautiful eyes I've possibly ever seen. There were a slew of other touching stories, and some callers were thanking us for doing what we were doing, and that was amazing. All I could say to those people, were that I was so thankful for them donating. I took a call from a local mom who said she and her son were donating a weeks worth of lunch money. The dollar amount wasn't huge, but the thought was and that was the mantra I repeated to the callers who told me they were sorry they couldn't give more.
It was much more heart wrenching than I was prepared for.
I (at Hg's pressing) went to my knit night with the local knitting girls as my therapy. It was a good thing. Yesterday I went thru a gamut of emotions from work related stress to the ups and downs of the calls.
We had raised just a bit under $35 thousand by the end of the day from callers, (we still don't have the totals for all the online contributions) and I am grateful to all the callers as well as the various radio stations that came together for this one day.
