Tuesday, April 30, 2013

relay

 It's that time of year again. Time for me to tell you about my super sweet Grandma. Tell you how she made the most delicious hot cross buns in a wood fired cook stove. Or how she loved hats and costume jewelry and Avon. How she was never ready for Christmas. My cousins and I would be dying to open presents, but we'd have to wait until Grandma reappeared from upstairs where she was sorting everyone's gifts into BiWay bags, her "wrapping paper" of choice. I want to tell you how even after Dad died she would tuck his favourite chocolate bar into the care packages she'd make up for us. I want to tell you about the last conversation I remember having with her, she asked me how my date with "that Revill boy" went.  We grew up in a small town my Grandma may not have known Mike at that point, but she certainly knew his people. It was days after my first date with Mike and only a handful of weeks before she died.

It's time to tell you about Papa Joyce. The girls Great Grandma. How she was sweet and funny and never skimpy with the hugs. Abby, our tiny little Abby, dubbed her Papa Joyce for reasons known only to her, but I think it tickled Papa Joyce to no end. I want to tell you how part way through my pregnancy with Maya, while Mike and I could not agree on a first name for our impending baby, we very quickly agreed that her middle name would be Joyce. I'm only sorry she never had a chance to meet her in person.

I want to tell you about great friends to our family... about Cliff and Hamburger Bob. I want to tell you about how cancer took them from us. This story is not unique, the nine ladies that make up the Jersey Girls know that. You out there all know that. The awful part of the story is that cancer has touched every one of us in some way. There is no escaping it.

In June my best girls and I will walk over night in a twelve hour relay to raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society. This is our third year participating in the Relay for Life and, we are hoping, our third as a Dream Team. We've set an ambitious goal of $5000 in 2013 and no donation is too small to help us get there.

I'm walking in memory and in honour of my people, but I want you to know that I'm walking for all your people too. Abby and I are walking to help find a cure for cancer. Please consider sponsoring our walk. You can do so HERE. Thank you.

1 comment:

Goofball said...

good luck with the relay this year !! :) Go dream team