I would like to share my story of why I think Relay For Life is so important to all of us.

On June 30, 2007, I lost my husband, Joe T. Ulmer to Brain Cancer. He was diagnosed in August of 2006 with CNS Cancer.After removal of the tumor on Aug. 30, 2006, he was in the hospital until Dec. 7, 2006. At that time I brought him home. With the help of Hospice and our daughters, Lissa Macklin and Kim Christensen and husband, Phil, and our church family, he lived until June 30, 2007. We had some very blessed times after he came home. The first was our church family, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, coming to sing Christmas Carols to him outside his bedroom window, He had only been home from the hospital about 10 days. He gone through 3 rounds of Chemotherapy, so he was pretty weak, but he sang along with them. He wished to go to church one more time, so with a lot of help from our church and the Greenwood Schools, we managed to get Joe to church to see the Christmas Candlelight Service. At the end of the service he did the closing prayer. There was not a dry eye in the church. He never asked to go back, because he felt so at peace with God that night. He enjoyed every moment with his visitors. Our Pastor, Brian Williams and Joe had a very close friendship. He waited every day for Brian to come over, which Brian did faithfully. Joe had Christmas with our family, Grandkids and Great Grandson and friends. We celebrated birthdays with our kids and had our anniversary on June 4, 2007.

I am so thankful to God for each breath he took. He was not in any pain and up until 5 days before he died, he talked and watched TV daily. He slipped into a coma and died on June 30, 2007. I have a huge void in my life, that Cancer caused. Relay For Life is so important to all of us. Cancer touches us in ways that we may not even realize. We have to keep the fight for a cure going.

Please join all of us in this fight.

Thank You for your Prayers and Donations.

Mary Ulmer