So we're down to the wire. And I was going to just let it slip on by and not really say another word about it unless there was something big to say. And I can't really imagine what that something would be.

I had no intentions of sending out any emails or letters or postcards to friends and family and fellow bloggers to say that the Relay is upon us and won't you please consider donating now before it happens? You know.. sort of one final public television type fund raising drive push... operators are standing by to take your call sort of thing.

That's right. I wasn't going to do that. I just didn't have the energy this year. Frankly, I'm tired. Exhausted actually. I'm tired of people telling me that they aren't going to have a team this year because it just isn't any fun anymore. Or because it was too disorganized last year. Or we just haven't come up with any new ideas and it has been the same old things for the past few years so why should they bother?

Keith Kennedy is Relay For Life honorary chair, cancer survivor

By Beth Dickman, Hudson Star-Observer
Published Friday, June 15, 2007

As superstitions go, Friday the 13th is the one day not to cross a black cat or walk underneath a ladder. On Friday, April 13, 2001, Keith Kennedy’s doctor discovered a brain tumor, and he was told he would never work again.

“I fought a brain tumor awhile back,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy, 42, an independent information technology consultant and longtime Hudson resident, defied his odds and has resumed working. Though he is now plagued by epilepsy, a common side effect of surviving such conditions, he has regained the majority of his functioning abilities, he said.

Hudson Relay Family

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If you have other things to do? You might want to go away and do them and let this load. For a few hours. LOL. Yeah. It's a long load. There are a few photos. And it takes a while. Good song. Great hike. Fabulous inspirations. What can I say? :) I'm actually serious. It will play so much more smoothly if you let it load. For a long time. Let the bar fill in. So walk away. Go on. You can do it. Have patience. Do it. 

Go here to see the video.

So last week I took a hike up Little Devil's Tower in SoDak. It isn't very big as mountains go. Quite a bit smaller than Harney Peak which we climbed a couple of years ago when we were out there. And, which was our destination again this year. But things happen. Things like snow storms. Yeah even in late May. It wasn't expected. And we weren't prepared. Should have been. But weren't. So we looked at the empty parking lot at the trail head for Harney and decided to hike something that had a little less distance to it in case the clouds that were hovering in the distance and looked a lot more threatening than the ones we were being picked on by, decided to dump something much more substantial. Because you don't want to be blindsided miles up a mountain path without the right supplies. You don't want to be lost and be the ones too stupid to have the right stuff with you.

The mini-slideshow...

I've talked about him several times in my blog and in the comments and forums. And he sent out an email the other day letting people know that he has a video on YouTube now. So I thought I would bring him here to you.

So here he is... Our Brain Tumor Warrior Hero... David M. Bailey with his song Tucson...

The question is being asked Why are you involved with Relay For Life? So I thought this would be a good time to answer that question. It isn't an easy answer, however.

• I first got involved with Relay For Life back in 2002. I read about it in my local paper. It caught my eye because my husband, Keith was still recovering from a brain tumor that had been surgically removed the year before at Mayo in Rochester, or technically, at St. Mary's hospital there. We joined the local Hospital Relay team and thought it was a pretty fun time, as well as a very moving and inspirational experience for the survivors during the luminaria ceremony after dark. The next year we created our own family and friends team, Keith's Brain Trust, which we've continued on with every year.
• The team has continued on, but that has been far from my only reason to be involved with Relay. I'm also involved because after being a part of it that second year once we created our own team, I felt it was important that because we were taking part and utilizing what was put in place for every team, someone from the team should get involved in helping to organize and coordinate the event itself. So the next year, I became a committee member, vowing to myself that I would not leave the committee unless I also found two people to replace me.
• Another reason I continue are the incredible people that I have met since I got involved. Every year when the event comes along and you go to that track and begin to walk around it with other survivors, caregivers, family and friends of those who have walked the cancer walk, you are there walking with your own kin. You may learn names, or you may not. All the same, you know these people. They are your people. At least for that one night every year.

I'm making a list of new Inspirations not for me, but for those who will be visiting my garage sale later this week. I want them to be inspired so that they will dig deeply into their purses and pockets when they are making their purchases. Yep. I'm not pricing things, ladies and gents. I'm simply saying "Won't you please look around you at the people who inspire me to do this year after year and give generously to the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life?"

Since our last garage sale in May of last year:

• Our friend Tom passed away.
• A fabulous woman we had invited to be our honorary chair also died, leaving behind three beautiful little girls, her devoted husband, and her identical twin sister, all of whom are lost without her.
• A musical brain tumor warrior celebrated his 11th year of survivorship, a true miracle in his case.
• Our Torch Bearer from the Relay of 2006 entered a trial... and after his condition worsened, had to leave it again. :(
• I met a gentleman, who is the producer of a local cable news show and is currently editing a small bit we did about the Relay for his show to air next week. He emailed me tonight to say he begins chemo next Tuesday. He is also about to undergo a cancer trial because he was diagnosed in March of this year after a routine colonoscopy. His tumor was considered high-risk for return. People! Get those routine exams! They could save your life!
• My sister-in-law lost her dear friend Dale. Pancreatic cancer is an awful beast.
• A little baby was born here in my home town and he had a nasty brain tumor. It was removed and he now has the fun task of going through chemo. But Connor is a tough little cookie and his family will be a part of our Relay ceremony potentially. (click on journal if you head over to his site)
• A classmate of Keli's lost her dad, Bud MacBride after his battle with a brain tumor.

Perhaps you can help me.

I'm spending all of my free time going to my storage locker, opening boxes, looking through them and deciding if what is contained in each of them is mostly items that should be sold in my upcoming garage sale to benefit our Relay For Life event or will I mostly use it in our new house or is it something I'm storing because it means too much to me to get rid of. (In other words, will I open that same box in a couple more years and wonder why in the world I still have that ridiculous thing and sell it in that Relay garage sale!) Then the ones that are headed to the sale get loaded into my car, brought back to the house and unpacked in my garage and set about on the tables. I'm not marking anything. I'm just setting it all out. And then rearranging everything. Over and over and over again.

2006 Relay Garage Sale

Tom with sweet little Oreo

Telling a friend goodbye is never easy. Saying goodbye to a friend who has been fighting cancer for many months (years) and has been loved by his wife and his children and will be missed by all is very difficult.

Watching that family struggle with his care these past months was painful, though. His wife admitted in her recent email update to her friends that he is ready. And this morning, he breathed his last. No more feeding tube, no more anti-nausea medications, pain medications, and acid-reflux medications.

All those who love him must now move forward without his presence. That's the hardest part.

We will miss your gentle spirit in our lives, Tom. You were the quiet one, there in the background, but you were there and now you will not be.

My husband Keith will be speaking at our Relay this year which is fantastic! We celebrate that he has this opportunity to share his survival story. I want to share here, Monica's story. Because she will be unable to speak with us as we had hoped.

Last night, Monica was highlighted on the news in St. Paul.

• Read her news story here
• Or watch the news video here
• Visit Monica's Caring Bridges Site which was so beautifully maintained by her husband and sister
• Ocular Melanoma Foundation