October musings

Hey y'all

I love October. In the mid-Atlantic, it's still warm many days, the foliage, even on our daily commutes, is spectacular, the World Series is at hand, everyone has fun Halloween stuff up, and there is pumpkin bread and pumpkin spiced latte everywhere. But October is bitter sweet for me too. These days I can't see beautiful foliage without flashing back to my drive past glorious foliage in NH and Maine 4 years ago to be with my family for the last days of my father's life. It was a blessing to be there so much in his last months, to be able to help mom, to hold his hand as I slept in a chair by his bed the last full night of his life. But it is also so sad to have lost him, just months before my wedding to Dan, 2 years before the birth of our magical daughter, and at a time when he and my mom should have been enjoying their retirement years together. They were the love of each other's lives, and mom still misses him so much. He died of a rare lymphoma months after turning 70, having been substantially disabled by the illness for several years. Halloween is it's own mix of emotions. Since 1984, when a phone call from Doris Findlay woke me in my dorm room to tell me that Pete, my childhood tormentor and high school and college friend, had succumbed to the leukemia he'd battled with determination and humor since our junior year of high school. Orange and black signal both gleeful fun and tragic loss. That night a group of us watched for the great pumpkin on the college green--extension cords strung together to reach a little hotpot with cider--and sang pumpkin carols that someone (Mike, Danny, Pete?) had written our freshman year when the tradition began. It was an informal celebration of Pete's life that night, and he made an indelible mark on so many in his relatively short life. How much more could he have changed the world with his passion for civil rights, his love of jazz, and his deep distrust of all things nuclear? We'll never know, because leukemia treatments in those days were not enough to save him.

They are much better now, due to years of research and the bravery of patients and their families trying the new treatments as they have come along. But still a person dies EVERY 10 MINUTES from blood cancer. EVERY 10 MINUTES. That is why I'm lacing up my sneakers (or squeezing my feet into my Vibram 5 Fingers, depending on the day) and training for the Country Music Marathon in April of 2010. I know that every year participants in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training Marathons, Century Rides, Triathalons, and Hikes raise millions to help continue to fund the research that can save more lives. I have to do my part--in memory of Dad and Pete and other friends I have lost, but more importantly, for the folks out there that still have a chance to beat these illnesses.

PLEASE JOIN ME. If you have a local chapter of Team in Training, come run the marathon with me and raise money for a cure. If you don't feel that ambitious, please donate generously through my fundraising efforts. You can donate online at http://pages.teamintraining.org/epa/cmc10/earonson or make a check payable to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and send it to me at 7833 Mill Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027. I am aiming to raise $5000 this time around.

Also, when I run or walk a marathon for TNT, I always dedicate each mile to someone who is fighting or who has died from one of the blood cancers. If you have someone you'd like me to honor, drop me a line and tell me their name and a little about them. If there is a special mile they would like (from 1 to 26), let me know that too.

Finally, I'm feeling the desire to compile memories of those I've lost to these diseases in one place. I'm going to start a blog page where we can post stories about Dad, Pete, Fred Schweers, Terry Henley, Ernst Freese to keep the memories of these people fresh and rich. I'll put the address in my team in training fundraising page (address above) and here once I have created the blog. Please contribute your tales of these wonderful folks and post pictures of them if you have some!

Feel free to forward this to anyone else you think might want to help. Have a gorgeous and fun-filled October, and thanks so much for your help!