Since
discovering a "concerning mass" in my colon in mid-February, I had been
trying to avoid detailed discussion of news in front of my oldest son
Marcus who is 10 but had been a bit more lax in front of my 4 year old
daughter Sophia.
It was the night before my surgery to remove
the mass and I was on the phone with one of my dearest friends Kelly
Ann. We were discussing all of the things this could possibly be
besides cancer (it is amazing how creative you can get in times like
these). My daughter Sophia was in and out of the room so it is unclear
between this conversation and others before how much she had overheard.
Later
that night, Sophia asked me to draw her a picture of our family for her
to color. So I did, but please don't judge me for my drawing
capabilities, for some reason or another, my dear mother didn't care to
pass down her art skills to me, thanks Ma!
When Sophia was done
coloring she brought the drawing to me and my breath caught when I saw
how she had colored me all in red. Our conversation then went like
this:
Me: Sophia, why is mommy covered in red dots?
Sophia: Cause mommy.....the killers killed you!
Me (with heart stopped): What?!? The killers killed me...why?
Sophia: Because Ma, they wanted to show you a present in the woods but you wouldn't see it?
Me: Oh gosh...so mommy is dead, that makes me sad.
Sophia: No silly mommy...then a big white elephant came along and sprayed you down with his trunk and you were all better!
Phew,
right....thankfully there was a happy ending to the story, at least
that's how I will choose to see it. Children amaze me. It very easy
to confuse a child's limited vocabulary with a limited comprehension,
but clearly Sophia knew something was going on. And I know some people
believe that kids at that age have an “ability” to see things where
adults do not and I tend to agree!
~ Michelle
An
even more poignant twist to this story is while recovering from her
surgery in the hospital, one of the nurses taking care of Michelle had
an elephant tattooed on her arm!
So as we started planning the
benefit for her, the image of an elephant was so perfect as a t-shirt
design. An elephant's behind is even more fitting to represent colon
cancer.
The vision was for the elephant to "spray" blue ribbons.
But Michelle did not want the focus to be solely on colon cancer,
as one of her pet peeves is how segregated cancer awareness can be. The
attention to breast cancer has risen dramatically with the pink
ribbon campaign and has made great strides, however colorectal cancer
remains the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States.
The fight to end cancer should be a universal fight to end all cancer.
And so our final design shows an elephant spraying multi-colored
ribbons to raise awareness for all cancer. Because all cancers, no
matter what kind, have the same earth shattering impact on the
diagnosed, their family and their friends.
~ Sandra
Our
team is participating in the 2012 Saratoga Springs Get Your Rear In
Gear 5K Run/Walk, a event to benefit the Colon Cancer Coalition. We want
to make a difference for the thousands of people in our community
touched by colon cancer. The funds we raise will stay right here,
helping with prevention, early detection and treatment for this disease.
