Race for the Cure

Hoda Kotb from the Today Show

Saturday morning, bright and early, the twins, my Mom and I, headed to the Race for the Cure. (I don't think the twins have seen the 6 o'clock hour in quite some time :) And all I had to promise them was Starbucks.) We, along with 70,000 others, packed the streets of downtown St. Louis and raced to end the devastating disease of breast cancer. This is near and dear to our hearts since 25 years ago my mom was diagnosed at the young age of 36. I was 12 at the time and my brothers were 3 and 5! I can not imagine how scared my mom was having kids that were so young.

There are so many things I remember about that time. I remember hearing the words "your Mom has cancer", I remember how dark my Mom's room would be after chemo and how I would sit outside of her door and wonder when she would stop throwing up. I remember when my Aunt Barb came to stay with us to help us and how she folded the towels differently than my Mom did. I would always try to show her how we folded them at our house (sounds bratty doesn't it?). I remember when my Mom's hair fell out and how frightening that was for me to look at her as someone sick. There are so many memories of that difficult time but the best memory was when she was declared "cancer free" a year later.

And so with feelings of thankfulness and pride we declared on our backs that we were celebrating that our Mom/Grammy was cancer free for 25 years. I saw many people taking pictures of our backs as we walked our 3 miles. My prayer is that we gave many people still fighting this disease some hope. We met a young woman currently in the fight of her life. She walked with her husband, parents and pulled her two little girls ages 2 and 4 in a wagon. She just finished chemo last week and is now starting radiation. Several of her lymph nodes were positive for cancer. Her father, Ed, told me that they take it one day at a time. He was so encouraged to hear my Mom's story and said he can only pray that she has the same ending to this disease as my Mom did.

I would love to make this a tradition and do this every year with my family. It is so moving to see how strong these women are that are battling this awful disease. It is also encouraging to see the massive support systems that get them through every day. Our family has been incredibly blessed by the healing of my mother and I thank God for her EVERY day! We love you Mom! Thank you for fighting for us.