Your kindness lives on after you're gone
Have I ever mentioned my friend Donna?
Yeah, I've written something about her maybe a dozen times in the last year. I think about her almost every day. Although she died almost a year ago, her legacy of caring and giving lives on.
Donna battled Melanoma for more than four years. While she was fighting for her own life, she took the time to counsel others with the same disease. I was one of those she helped.
I'm always amazed at the generosity of heart and spirit from those who are going through the worst of times. That describes Donna to a tee. She wanted to make sure no one went through the Hell that she did. Selfless. Amazing.
Sunday, I went for a walk with the Melanoma community. If you've ever done this, no matter the cause, you know it's almost always an emotional experience. It brings up feelings from deep in your soul.
The above photo is from the team Donna's family formed in her honor. Even though Donna is gone, they want to raise money to help fund Melanoma research and awareness.
The event was a 5k walk/run. As it was getting ready to start, I hadn't touched base with Donna's family. I walked over to the start line and there they were...the last group getting ready to walk. They all had on matching white t-shirts with Moncie's Melanoma Mafia logo on the front.
The first person I saw was Donna's husband. I recognized him from Facebook. He didn't know me but did see my Cubs baseball cap and said "Go Cubs" before I could say a word. Cool...I found a Cubs fan.
I introduced myself and told him about how I met Donna through ChicagoNow and how she helped me through my Stage 1 Melanoma. About halfway through, I choked up and had to turn away for a second. I apologized for doing that but he said, no problem, he understood. I have a feeling it wasn't the first time someone told him a story like that about his wife. Probably far from the first. Here's a man who lost his wife less than a year ago, is at the first Melanoma walk since losing her and he's the one who is comforting someone he's never met. Again....generosity of heart and spirit.
The next hour was spent walking and trading stories with one of Donna's sisters. The family is still reeling from loss and yet what I took from my day with them was no one else should go through what we did. For a third time....generosity of heart and spirit.
It's four days later and I'm still moved and still emotional. You see things like this and you can't help but think you aren't doing enough. I feel like I need to pick up my own game.
That starts today!
Here's the piece I wrote about for Donna last fall. I also need to thank my friend Amy who is also a blogger here. She lost her mom to Melanoma and had her own bout with it too, and yet every time I see her she always mentions how happy she is that mine was caught at an early stage. Like I said above...another with generosity of heart and spirit.
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