Y’all Can Stop Now!

To my family – y’all can stop now. Any time. Right now would be nice. I think that we have had enough cancer in the family, and now with this latest one, you have gone over the top. Sure, you get your name on my next purple marathon shirt, but it isn’t worth it. Trust me! Of course I will think of each of you with love on the day of the race, but still, I so wish that none of you had to go on my shirt.

So knock it off, will ya?

Two years ago, I had one family member’s name on my race shirt, my sister-in-law Christine. She is a double cancer survivor, breast and ovarian, at a time when she had a very poor chance of surviving. That was nearly 20 years ago.

Then this past year, I had to add my sister Ann, for breast cancer. That was bad enough. But when my next race comes around in 2009, I will have five names of family members on there! Three of them have come since January of this year! My brother Chris was diagnosed with prostate cancer in February. My step-mother Rhoda was diagnosed with breast cancer in March. And now, two days ago, I learned that my step-father Stuart has terminal lung cancer.

Five names on my next shirt of people living with cancer in my own family, three of them this year. And that doesn’t include the guy wearing the shirt! I think that is quite enough in one family for now. I will be honored to wear your names in my next race, but I sure wish it was for something else.