Day Thirty of... 98 Days

Have you ever seen Father of the Bride when they are at the dinner table and the daughter who just got back from Rome telling her Dad she met the man of her dreams.  That they fell in love and they got engaged and she was getting married.  And as the father is looking at his daughter that is now a woman he only sees her and hears this little child of maybe six saying I am getting married.  It's both touching and humorous at the same time but oh you can relate.

The times that it strikes you the most is when they are sick.  Regardless of how old they are when your child is not feeling well you see them as your little baby and would give anything to trade places with them.  And that is when they are having the flu or something that lays them up but you know they will recover shortly.

Now imagine that same scenario but your baby regardless of age has a blood cancer like Leukemia like Tressa our honoree. How do you deal with watching your child battle that life threatening disease?  I honestly don't know.  I guess you find faith or inner strength or some belief that they will get through this.  And what goes through the child's mind as they stare back at you with those innocent loving eyes?

For Tressa she believed it was all for a reason and she was ready to tackle anything else thrown at her because she wanted to make sure no one else would have to experience what she did.  She believed that everyone deals with things in their lives they don't want to but it would all be worth it.  And that she learned to live everyday like it was her last because any day it could be.  What a truly remarkable woman well beyond her years.

So for Tressa and all others who lost their life to this dreaded disease is there a reason I don't pretend to know that or understand why it happened.  I only know through this fund-raising campaign that will start this Thursday for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society we want to fund research and find a cure so every mother and father can look across that table and see their baby telling them a story of how they just got engaged and getting married.