Pink Ribbon Getaway for Breast Cancer Survivors

Today was the 3rd Annual Pink Ribbon Getaway for breast cancer survivors. I've been a guest speaker for the event for the last 3 years and am humbled and honored to be a part of such a special day. This year my topic was "There's no place like hope." I talked about how hope isn't contingent upon a certain outcome and shared various stories about my mom. I also wanted to address this need of women to ask for help and to give up the idea of superwoman. NONE of us have it all together all the time. Specifically, I talked about how Mom & I used to bake cookies together, and how that was a special memory. She died in October of 1997 and I remember that 1st Christmas, stricken with grief, asking myself "Who's going to make the cookies?!" (I then told them how I obsessively made hundreds of cookies as a way to just get through. And we each get through illness, grief, and the tribulations of life by just doing the best we can.) I then shared how it's important to look at our challenges in another way. Only each one of us assigns the meaning of our challenges. I.e, I HONOR my mother by the LIFE I LIVE...key word, LIVE! Near the end of the talk, I asked the survivors to participate in parts of the poem. I asked them to say outloud every word in the poem that started with "C." (I'll post the poem in another note). I couldn't believe how much they participated! Some of them were cheering through the poem. It was so much fun. I wrote an additional line of the poem & read it out loud at the close:
"As I look at this room of survivors, I'm inspired to celebrate!
As a show of support for EVERY survivor, I did something special....I baked!
I baked each survivor a cookie, using Mom's old recipe.
Enjoy this cookie as a special gift, a gift from my Mom, a gift from Marie."

Several firefighters and staff then passed out cookies to all the survivors. Such a special day!

I baked about 150 cookies for pink ribbon. There's a few pink heels for the Tyler firefighters that were at the event promoting the pink heels tour. I sent the extra cookies with them to the station. They have been amazing to me and to the entire community.
Rows of Pink Cookies!

Some of the members of my support group & Sheriff J.B. Smith

My friend and coworker, Patty...recently diagnosed and doing GREAT!

The keynote speaker, Kathy LeToure. She was hilarious and very compelling. I was crying throughout parts of her speech. What a testament!