It's been 21 years since my mother passed away after a long struggle with breast cancer.  I can now say, I have lived longer without a mother, than I did with one, yet not a day goes by when I don't think of her.  I think of the advice she could be giving me as I raise my children, or how proud she'd be as she watched how they (and I) have grown up.  I have friends whose mother's jump at the opportunity to help them out with daycare or simple babysitting.  My mom would have done that too.

It is logical to start with my mom to explain why I embark on this mission to ride close to 200 miles in a weekend and raise over $4000 in donations, of which 100% raised will be donated to the Jimmy Fund and Dana Farber Cancer Institute.  But, in reality, I'm doing this ride for my dad.  My dad who married his soul mate at the young age of 24, only to learn after just 20 years of marriage that she had Breast Cancer.   We thought she was going to pull through at one point, but it came back.  The last 6 months were the hardest.  I was a sophomore at UMass, close enough that I was able to come home every-other weekend to visit.  But when cancer kicks in, it kicks in fast.  Each time I visited, I watched as my mom's condition got worse & worse.  How the woman who could easily power through 3 sets of tennis or a week of skiing, couldn't even make it up the stairs anymore.   My dad was ever so supportive through this terrible time, getting her to all the best doctors he could find and doing everything in his power to make her comfortable.  My mom's strength is what I remember most and how, even to her final day she was the strong & fair mother.  On January 3, 1991, while my brother was at school and I had stepped away from her hospital bed, she said her final good-bye to my dad, as if it would not have been fair if I were there and my brother was not.  That is how she was, and how I will always remember her. 

It took my dad 17 years to find someone new that he let himself fall in love again.  Diane Gilman was just another one of his "dates" at first... or so I thought.  I had told him that it was confusing for him to keep bringing over different "friends" to meet my children, and he asked me.. "Just 1 more?"  This date was special, I had never seen my father like this before.  Just one date and he was hooked on this very quiet, petite woman, whom he had just had a first date with at a local deli.  It didn't take long for Diane to become part of my dad's daily life, and for the first time in almost 2 decades, he had someone he wanted to live with and love.   But after just over a year, Diane found out she had Lung Cancer.  Again, my father sought out the best doctors in the area, and I actually thought she was doing alright for a while there, but then the last 6 months came... and just like with my mother, the cancer took over fast and furious.  Diane, like my mother, was strong and did everything she could to hide the pain she had.   My father, turned into her "Angel", he took leave from his job so he could care for her 24-7.  But this past Thanksgiving, she was admitted into hospice care and in the presence of just my father and her son and his wife, she said her final good-bye.

No one should have to say good-bye to one loved-one in this way, and never twice.  So, to do my part, I have joined Team Perry a team that has raised over $4 million in the last decade for the Jimmy Fund/Dana Farber.  I cannot find a cure for cancer myself, but hopefully by raising money and supporting cancer research, someone in the future will see their loved-one recover from Cancer.

Thank you for your support!  Please cheer for me on August 4 & 5 as I take on the 2 day, 180 mile ride to Provincetown. 

Total Raised

$3,643

Goal

$6,600

Progress