Front Page News

This week’s Enterprise Newspaper featured Terry’s Walk on the front page! The article is great! Please take time to read the story. We are only two short weeks away, and this article was a great opportunity for us to reach out to the community. Thank you Enterprise Newspaper and Diane Barth for taking an interest in my mom’s story and promoting this event!

Pot Luck Picnic

Following the walk, friends and family are invited to a Pot Luck Picnic on the Town Green. We ask that if you are attending please bring something to share and your own blankets or chairs to sit on. Valerie, a dear family friend, has offered to coordinate this Pot Luck Picnic.

Please e-mail Valerie at vfortev@aol.com with the following information if you are planning on attending:
Entrée or Dessert:
Name:
Phone:

We hope to see you there!

Extending the offer!

There is still time to order your T-shirts! We are extending the August 1st deadline for T-shirt orders until August 24, 2008. We have raised over $2,000 but wouldn’t it be great to raise more! T-shirt sales, registrations and donations to Terry’s Walk will go directly to the Melanoma Foundation of New England's project to better educate physicians and other healthcare professionals in properly identifying and treating melanoma. We would love to have as many people as we can come and personally share in this beautiful fundraising memorial walk. By sending in your registration fee you can get a free “Setting the Sun on Melanoma” T-shirt. If you are unable to attend, you can still purchase the T-shirt, and show your support. Donations can also be made directly to the Melanoma Foundation of New England via their web site (at left), just be sure to include that it is for Terry’s Walk. If you have any questions, please contact me!

I want to thank those who have already donated and all those planning to donate. You are making a difference in fighting cancer!

It is official!

We are going to print with the entry forms this week! The forms are also available here in the left hand column. Start registering now, the first 200 gets a free T-shirt with their entry fee!

We have also gotten some great business sponsorship already. It is wonderful to see things finally starting to connect and come together. The road ahead is still long but we are moving very fast. The support of family and friends has been wonderful. Please keep ideas coming, and if we can't put it to use this year, we will put it into action for Terry's Walk 2009!!

Walk Information

We are still working out some of the registration information with the Melanoma Foundation of New England (MFNE). I had posted all the info and registration forms, but after talking to MFNE we have a few changes to make. If you already printed and sent your registration form in, don't worry, you will be "grandfathered-in" after the changes.

Thank you all for your patience and support! We will get this walk of the ground!
Keep checking back for updates!

Great News

Today my dad, Rayanne and I met with the Melanoma Foundation of New England . They have taken our walk-a-thon on board! Donations for the walk-a-thon will be made to the Melanoma Foundation of New England which means a great deal. Corporate matching gifts can be applied, as well as all the donations are tax deductable.
Now the real work begins. “Terry’s Walk” will need volunteers, sponsors and most importantly, WALKERS! We will be forming our committee and delegating responsibilities shortly. If you wish to volunteer, please e-mail me (melanoma_green@yahoo.com). Registration forms are being designed and will be available soon.

September 12: A beautiful Day to Go to Heaven

The sun is coming up on a new day. I sit in my parent’s house listening to my mothers labored breaths. It is good to see the sun, although the rain of yesterday was needed. I think we all need to have the rain wash away our pain, yet my mom still clings to life lying next to my dad. I have accepted death as part of life and welcome it in my mom’s case. What makes me angry is the dying. When will the torture of this world let my mother go on to peace in heaven with God? I can’t imagine my life with out faith, I cannot believe such a good woman would suffer and not be rewarded with the gates of Heaven. Maybe my mother is suffering her purgatory here surrounded by our love, so when the time comes there is no delay in seeing the peace of heaven. I guess that is a good way to view suffering on earth, especially for the good ones. All souls have sins, in my mother’s case, very few ... But maybe because of her good heart she can travel through the cleansing of purgatory with the strength and love of her family at her side. She said she wanted to die on September eighteenth, her birthday. What a beautiful thought, to want to be born again on your birthday, but this time to be born into everlasting life with God.
The house has stirred. Now I sit here with my mom, hoping, praying. Dad opened the window and the cool fall air floats in. Her sleep is mostly peaceful. Every so often she will make a noise as if she can feel the life leaving her body.
As I kissed my mother’s head I whispered “It is a beautiful day to go to heaven.” The sun was warm upon her face, yet her body still seemed cold. My father went in to have his afternoon nap with her. She wanted to go to sleep with my dad and wake up with God, what a beautiful way to accept one’s own death.
I drove home with the windows open, letting the beauty of the season fill my lungs. I had a feeling I would be back that afternoon, but I still enjoyed the car ride home. I hugged and kissed my kids, we cuddled on the couch, and the phone rang ... I knew. My dad couldn’t bear to speak the words, and I simply said, “It was a beautiful day to go to heaven.” I kissed my kids and husband again, and began the drive to my sister’s. We passed on the road as she went to drop her daughter at school, we both pretended we didn’t see the other ... I sat in her drive and waited. As my sister arrived and got out of her car, we actually smiled, held hands, looked into the fall sky and agreed, it was a beautiful day to go to heaven ...