Archives for September 2016

(The purpose of this 16-week blog is to shine the light on childhood cancer by sharing our family’s personal experience as I prepare to run my first ever half marathon and raise money to help children with cancer and their families.  Be a part of the story! Donate here … http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/Heroes/Heroes?px=2078389&pg=personal&fr_id=59186 then share with your family and friends.)

When Nick was diagnosed with cancer, one of the first things that had to happen was that he needed to have a double hickman central line surgically implanted into a large vein in the middle of his chest.

The line was partially under the skin of Nick’s chest but about 12 inches of it hung on the outside.  Three times a day, every single day, I gave him antibiotics through that line. Every other day I had to take off all the bandages, clean the skin around the line, and replace the old bandages with fresh, clean ones.  The exposed part of the line was then wound up and taped to Nick’s chest under a neat little square of bandage.

In the months to come Nick would also receive blood, platelets, chemotherapy, and fluids through that central line.  It is also the place where he would have blood drawn about every other day.  The central line prevented him from having to be stuck by needles numerous times a day for months on end.

After 6 months, when Nick had finished treatment and was in remission, the central line was pulled…yes, pulled out…and we were sent home.

Nick was well and we were happy to be moving back home after living in Memphis, Tennessee away from the rest of our family for so long.

THE ONLY TATTOOS I HAVE ARE SCARS

For 2 ½ months in the summer of 2006, while he was in remission and before he relapsed, Nick enjoyed spending time with his brother and sister and his friends. One day, during those months, he was invited to go swimming.  I sat by the side of the pool that day and watched as Nick dived, swam, and played around in the pool with his shirt on.

A bit later I asked him privately why he didn’t take his shirt off to swim.  He told me that he felt weird because of the big scar right in the center of his chest.  One of our St. Jude friends recently talked about her central line scar and described it, very accurately, as looking like a bullet wound to the chest.

I told Nick that his scar was a badge of honor that marked what he had just been through and that he should never be embarrassed about that.  He didn’t respond but I assume that he was thinking about what I had said because about 5 minutes later he stood up, flung off his shirt, and ran off to cannonball into the pool, making quite a splash!

THE WOUND IS WHERE THE LIGHT SHINES THROUGH

After Nick died, I wanted to know everything I could about where he is, what he’s doing, what it’s like there, what he’s like.  Every good parent wants to know these things about their living children, so why would I stop wondering about these things after my son left for Heaven? My questions set my feet on a journey that I am so grateful for because I now live with an eternal perspective that I never would have discovered otherwise.

One of the things that I wondered was if Nick will still have his scar when I see him again.  The automatic, churchy answer is to say “No one will have scars because they have been completely healed.”  That’s a great thought, but is it the truth?

As I searched for the real answer, I found this clue…

In the book of John, there is this great story that took place after Jesus died and then was resurrected.  There was a period of 40 days when He walked around showing Himself to people so that there would be eyewitness accounts that He was still alive.

One day Jesus visited His friends and they were so excited about it that they ran to tell others.

“We have seen the Lord!”

One man, named Thomas, didn’t believe it because he had not seen Jesus with his own eyes.  He told his friends…

“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

He was asking to see Jesus’ scars because they were the identifying marks that made Jesus who He is.

A week later, Jesus showed up again. This time Thomas was in the room.  Jesus walked over and said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Jesus still has scars!

This was a revolutionary thought to me.  Will we carry the significant scars from this life into the next?  If so, why?

No one chooses to have scars.  They are usually the result of an accident or a surgery.  But think about it…each scar has its own story to tell.  They are a part of what make you who you are.  But while that story usually has to do with illness or injury, if we so choose, we can use them to make a better story.

I am confident that when I see Nick again we will look at the scar in the middle of his chest and tell stories of our time in Memphis together.  We will marvel at how that scar prepared the way for a shift in the culture at a very well known hospital and set it on a course that would make it the leader in reaching bereaved parents around the globe with support and hope.  That scar represents the beginning of teaching doctors, nurses, psychosocial team members and other support staff around the world how to better help families when they get bad news, when a child is at the end of life, and beyond.

There is a great line from a song that my son, Josh, shared with me last month during a time when I felt so overburdened by the weight of sickness and death.

“Your scars shine like dark stars.  Yeah, your wounds are where the light shines through.”

Your scars are different than mine.  Different than Nick’s.  Some are visible.  Some are hidden on the inside.  But each carries a story.  Let the light shine through your visible and invisible scars. Find a greater story to live because of them.

 

Song 86 on my Race Day Playlist is Where the Light Shines Through by Switchfoot.  Don’t miss out on the greatness of this song.  Enjoy…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNP_Du9dSB0&list=PL6Mb92FE5WdUZAlcsskDDWP5y5V9PQOVA&index=3

When you’re feeling like an astronaut
Stuck on a planet even time forgot, and
You’re a version of yourself, but you’re not the same
You try to keep the wound camouflaged, and
The stitches heal, but the years are lost, and
Another bottle on the shelf can’t numb the pain

Why’re you running from yourself now?
You can’t run away

‘Cause your scars shine like dark stars
Yeah, your wounds are where the light shines through
So let’s go there, to that place where
We sing these broken prayers where the light shines through–
The wound is where the light shines through
Yeah, the wound is where the light shines through

Ain’t we all just Abraham’s son?
Saint and sinner with the song and drum, and
We’re fallen on our knees, we all bleed the same
And the only tattoos I have are scars
I got your name written on my heart
And the story that brought us here ain’t the thing that changed, no

I wanna see that light shining
Brighter than the pain

 

Be part of the story!  Donate here…

If you are unable to donate financially, please consider passing along this message to others who can.  Thank you!

http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/Heroes/Heroes?px=2078389&pg=personal&fr_id=59186

 

Many of you who are reading this most likely know our Backstory, or at least part of it.  If you don’t and would like to know more details of Nick’s story, you can visit his CaringBridge site here…

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/nickavery

(The purpose of this 16-week blog is to shine the light on childhood cancer by sharing our family’s personal experience as I prepare to run my first ever half marathon and raise money to help children with cancer and their families. Be a part of the story! Donate here then share with your own family and friends.)

When our kids were younger, we took a family vacation to Snowshoe, West Virginia and stayed at the local ski resort.  Despite the fact that it was summer and obviously there was no snow, it was a great vacation with lots to do.  One of those things was a skate park with a halfpipe.

Nick was a skater wannabe.  He loved watching extreme sports, especially Shaun White. Shaun made it look so easy. Surely Nick could do the same thing.  So it only took a few seconds, while I wasn’t looking, for Nick to climb to the top of that halfpipe with his skateboard and get in position to dive over the edge.

If I wouldn’t have stopped him, just in time, I am confident that it all would’ve ended with some broken bones and stitches.  He was not happy when I told him he was not allowed to try the stunt.  He was sure that he could do it.  I told Nick to stay at the top of the halfpipe so that I could, at least, snap a picture.  It’s one of my favorite memories to this day.

I CAN DO IT

Several years later, Nick would take the same attitude when he decided that he wanted to play the guitar. He thought that if he only had a guitar then he would teach himself to play.

Ten days after he began treatment for cancer at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital he received a guitar from the hospital Santa on Christmas morning.  All morning long he strummed that guitar from his hospital bed while chemotherapy dripped into his bloodstream through the tube from the central line in his chest.

Several days later he found out that he could take free lessons from a guitar teacher through St. Jude.  His teacher told me later that Nick not only caught up to the other students who had been playing for quite some time but he passed them up and quickly became the best of the class.

As I remember the optimistic, can-do spirit of my son, I feel like I really can run this half marathon on December 3.  This morning, I logged another 5 mile run, something that I would have never thought I could have accomplished just a few months ago.

I’m pretty sure that in the seconds before the half marathon begins, I will feel like I’m on a skateboard at the top of a halfpipe waiting to go over the edge! I know that I won’t be the best or win any medals for speed but maybe, just maybe, I might win a different sort of prize…a sense of great accomplishment that I have actually done something I never thought was possible.  I’ve already been through the worst when Nick died.  Everything else in life is cake…even a half marathon.

ROCKSTAR

Just this morning, my good friend and fellow cancer mom, Jamie, wrote about Nick and called him “Nick the 15 year old rockstar”.  He would have loved that!  One urban dictionary defines a rockstar as…“Someone who doesn’t follow rules, they make their own. The go out of their way to be extraordinary, different from everyone else.” 

Yep. Nick was a rockstar.

What keeps us from being a rockstar, someone who is not afraid to be different, extraordinary?  What if we stood out from the crowd so that our lives might make a positive impact on someone else?

The world might just be a little bit better.

 

Song #14 on my Race Day Playlist is Sk8erBoi by Avril Lavigne.  It is a song that’s on Nick’s iPod and I love it because it will always remind me of him.

So channel your inner rockstar, turn up the volume, throw up your rawkfist, and enjoy Sk8erBoi!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIy3n2b7V9k

He was a boy.

She was a girl.

Can I make it anymore obvious?

He was a punk.

She did ballet.

What more can I say?

He wanted her.

She’d never tell.

Secretly she wanted him as well.

And all of her friends stuck up their nose.

They had a problem with his baggy clothes.

 

He was a skater boy.

She said, “See ya later, boy.”

He wasn’t good enough for her.

She had a pretty face but her head was up in space.

She needed to come back down to earth.

 

Five years from now, she sits at home feeding the baby.

She’s all alone.

She turns on TV and guess who she sees?

Skater boy rockin’ up MTV.

She calls up her friends.

They already know.

And they’ve all got tickets to see his show.

She tags along,

Stands in the crowd,

Looks up at the man that she turned down.

 

He was a skater boy.

She said, “See ya later, boy.”

He wasn’t good enough for her.

Now he’s a superstar

Slammin’ on his guitar

Does your pretty face see what he’s worth?

 

Be part of the story!  Donate here…

If you are unable to donate financially, please consider passing along this message to others who can.  Thank you!

http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/Heroes/Heroes?px=2078389&pg=personal&fr_id=59186

 

If you would like to know more details of Nick’s story, you can visit his CaringBridge site here…

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/nickavery

(The purpose of this 16-week blog is to shine the light on childhood cancer by sharing our family’s personal experience as I prepare to run my first ever half marathon and raise money to help children with cancer and their families. Be a part of the story! Donate here then share with your own family and friends.)

When Nick was 13, he and his friend Andrew decided (like 90% of all teenage boys) that they were going to start a band.  Nick loved music and Andrew played the guitar. Nick would write lyrics. Andrew would play. They would sing, be famous, and make girls swoon.

The first order of business was to have a name for their band.  After tossing around some ideas they came up with a winner…The Positive Negatives.  Nick loved to draw and so he started drawing logos for their band name (one of those is pictured at the top of this page in Nick’s own handwriting).

Two years later, Nick would get cancer.  Eight months after that he would die.

While Nick was going through chemotherapy, he never said “why me”.  He didn’t complain, not even in private to me.  In fact, he always thought positively and believed there was a good reason for everything negative that was happening to him.

And so the name The Positive Negatives took on a whole new meaning for me.

How is it possible to be positive in such a negative world?  I have witnessed this kind of spirit in so many children, teens, and their parents who are living with cancer and the after effects.  They seem to have grasped what is important in life and in death.

It’s a difficult thing to do especially when there are so many awful things that come along to distract us.

THE WINDOW

There it is.  My distraction.  Third floor, 2^nd window from the left, right in the front of the building.  That is the room where Nick died.  I’m looking at it now as I type these words from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

The times that I returned to St. Jude in the first several years after Nick’s death, all I could do was see that window.  In every TV commercial and every print add, there it was.  For quite some time, my view of life was obstructed by that window and what had happened in that room.

It was the last place where I saw my son alive.  The last place where I held his warm hand.  The last place where I studied every freckle and chicken pox scar so I wouldn’t forget. It was the last place that we were all together…the Avery’s, party of 5.

What happened in that room became my focus for a time.  I couldn’t see past it.  Until one day I realized that I was focusing on 13 days of Nick’s life and forgetting about the other 15 years, 7 months, and 1 week.

Once I began to turn my thoughts to all the other days of Nick’s life, I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with what had happened.  How could I turn this mother’s worst nightmare into something positive?

THE INDELIBLE MARK

I am convinced that the only way that we will leave a mark on this world is to determine that whatever tragedy or heartache that comes to us in this life, we will face it head on and work to find what good we can make from it.

Several weeks ago on the 10^th anniversary of Nick’s death, I got an email from a St. Jude staff person and friend.  She said, “In QoL (Quality of Life) rounds this morning we remembered Nick and you and passed around pictures of you and Nick together.  We talked about Nick’s legacy.”

Nick has most definitely left a legacy here.  And it came about because he was the ultimate Positive Negative.  Just by his example, he taught me how to be one, too.

Recently I watched a cheesy made for Amazon series called Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street.  At the end of one of the episodes the main character gives a heartfelt epilogue.  This is what he says…

“The only thing about life that anyone knows for certain is that it’s always changing. The moment you think you know where you stand the ground shifts beneath your feet. And I guess the most any of us can hope for is to fully love and be touched by the people we have met and the places we’ve been on this journey. And to know that, though we may only be passing through, we are not forgotten because we, too, have left an indelible mark.”

May you look for the positive in your negatives and leave an indelible mark.

By the way, it’s only 79 days (11 weeks and 2 days) until Race Day!   I am running so that  a cure will be found and kids will stop dying of cancer.

Song #46 from my Race Day Playlist is I Lived by OneRepublic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0rxydSolwU

This song reminds me of my Nick…and Carson…and Luis…and Samantha…and so many other kids whose lives have suddenly come to a screeching halt when they were told they had cancer.

If you haven’t been clicking the song link after reading the blog, you really should take a few minutes out of your day to enjoy some awesome music.

Be part of the story!  Donate here…

If you are unable to donate financially, please consider passing along this message to others who can.  Thank you!

http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/Heroes/Heroes?px=2078389&pg=personal&fr_id=59186

I LIVED

Hope when you take that jump, you don’t fear the fall
Hope when the water rises, you built a wall
Hope when the crowd screams out, they’re screaming your name
Hope if everybody runs, you choose to stay

Hope that you fall in love, and it hurts so bad
The only way you can know is give it all you have
And I hope that you don’t suffer but take the pain
Hope when the moment comes, you’ll say…
I, I did it all
I, I did it all
I owned every second that this world could give
I saw so many places, the things that I did
With every broken bone, I swear I lived

Hope that you spend your days, but they all add up
And when that sun goes down, hope you raise your cup
Oh, I wish that I could witness all your joy and all your pain
But until my moment comes, I’ll say…

I, I did it all
I, I did it all
I owned every second that this world could give
I saw so many places, the things that I did
With every broken bone, I swear I lived

 

Many of you who are reading this most likely know our Backstory, or at least part of it.  If you don’t and would like to know more details of Nick’s story, you can visit his CaringBridge site here…

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/nickavery

(The purpose of this 16-week blog is to shine the light on childhood cancer by sharing our family’s personal experience as I prepare to run my first ever half marathon and raise money to help children with cancer and their families. Be a part of the story! Donate here then share with your own family and friends.)

Most of the time, I get my half marathon training in before the day begins.  I have to get it over with early otherwise I spend most of the day trying to talk myself out of it.

 

I’m too tired to run after work.

I have too much to do when I get home.

I don’t feel good…I have a headache…I’m hungry.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…

 

The list of excuses can grow to be a mile long if I’m not careful.

Up until recently it was still fairly light in the early morning. But with fall just around the corner and because we have been losing daylight steadily, I’ve been running in the dark before the sun comes up.  The neighborhood looks strange and completely different before the world is awake.

As I ran along the side of the road on one of those first dark mornings, I came upon a street light. I didn’t think about the shadows that the light would cast especially since my own shadow was behind me at that moment.  But as I got closer to the glow of the light my shadow was suddenly beside me; then ran quickly ahead of me as I passed under and away from the light.  The first several times this happened, it scared the living bejeebers out of me!

While I watched my shadow race ahead and fall behind over and over again, I was reminded that we are, in fact, living in the Shadowlands…the in-between…the not-yet.

 

LIVING IN THE SHADOWLANDS

Last Saturday, I sat in a church in Akron, Ohio at the memorial service of yet another fallen child. Carson, the son of my dear friend, was diagnosed with cancer at the young age of 3. After 8 years of remission, Carson relapsed a few days before Thanksgiving 2015 and left for Heaven on August 11, 2016 at the age of 12.

 

“We were born but yesterday and know nothing.  Our days on earth are as fleeting as a shadow.”  Job 8:9

“How frail is humanity!  How short is life, how full of trouble!  We blossom like a flower and then wither. Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear.”  Job 14:1-2

“What are human beings that You care for them, mere mortals that You think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.”  Psalm 144:3-4

 

On my worst days, when I feel like I am surrounded on all sides by sickness and suffering, I remind myself that it won’t be like this forever.

C.S. Lewis once wrote, “The world of shadows, of almosts and neither/nors, close calls and what ifs, will give way to the bright sunshine of a world to come free of evil, free of pain, free of death.”

There is a Day coming when God says NO MORE!

No more hate.

No more fear.

No more suffering.

No more mourning.

No more tears.

And when that Day comes, no more children will ever get sick or die from cancer. In fact, it is the Day when God comes to restore all that has been lost…my Nick will be given back to me, Carson’s family will see him again, so many children will be returned to the ones who loved them so deeply in the Shadowlands.

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’” Revelation 21:4

 

THE SHADOW PROVES THE SUNSHINE

I’m thankful for the streetlights because it would be impossible for me to run in total darkness.  The fact that I have a shadow running beside me in the early morning proves that there is still light in the world. I am also thankful for the light that I see through the darkness of suffering.  It brings me hope that a better Day is coming.

Speaking of days…only 86 days until Race Day!  Yikes, it’s getting real!  I am determined to finish this race if I have to crawl across the finish line (and I might have to!).

You have to hear Song #10 on my Race Day Playlist…Mr. Blue Sky by The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).   It’s a fun song about the sun shining after so many dark and rainy days.  The video is pretty much done in a “Psychedelic 70’s” style.  I dare you to listen and not tap your toes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swYdKF1MpWg

The sun is shining in the sky
There ain’t a cloud in sight
It stopped raining
Everybody’s in the play
And don’t you know
It’s a beautiful new day
Hey ay ay!

Runnin’ down the avenue
See how the sun shines brightly

In the city
On the streets where once was pity
Mr. Blue
Sky is living here today
Hey ay ay!

Mr. Blue Sky
Please tell us why
You had to hide away
For so long (so long)
Where did we go wrong?

Mr. Blue Sky
Please tell us why
You had to hide away
For so long (so long)
Where did we go wrong?

Hey you with the pretty face
Welcome to the human race
A celebration
Mr. Blue Sky’s up there waitin’
And today
Is the day we’ve waited for!

 

Be part of the story!  Donate here and help find a cure for kids with cancer…

If you are unable to donate financially, please consider passing along this message to others who can.  Thank you!

http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/Heroes/Heroes?px=2078389&pg=personal&fr_id=59186

 

Many of you who are reading this most likely know our Backstory, or at least part of it.  If you don’t and would like to know more details of Nick’s story, you can visit his CaringBridge site here…

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/nickavery

(The purpose of this 16-week blog is to shine the light on childhood cancer by sharing our family’s personal experience as I prepare to run my first ever half marathon and raise money to help children with cancer and their families. Be a part of the story! Donate here then share with your own family and friends.)

I absolutely love superhero movies, probably way more than any other girl that I know.  Once I searched “How to watch the full Marvel Cinematic Universe in chronological order” and then I did it.

I am not kidding.

Captain America, Agent Carter, Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers, Agents of Shield, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Spiderman, XMen…the list goes on.  As you can imagine, it took some time to accomplish this feat but I really did it.

This is not something that I am particularly proud of.  Just a fun fact that not many people knew about me until right now.

One thing that I have observed while watching all these fictional stories play out is that the superheroes are only “super” heroes because they possess some unreal ability that was made up by a writer with a good imagination.

Superman puts on a cape and flies.

Iron Man has to create a special suit to be super AND stay alive.

Spiderman shoots webs out of his wrists.

Thor has an awesome giant hammer that only he is able to pick up and swing around.

The Hulk gets mad, turns green, then grows so big that all of his clothes rip to shreds off of his body (except for his pants which seem to grow with him…not sure how that happens.)

Some shoot lasers out of their eyes;

some can turn a sunny day instantly into a tornadic storm;

others grow long, sharp metal claws out of their knuckles to rip apart their enemies.

BACKSTORY: 

I have had the privilege of knowing some real superheroes in my life. Their superhero abilities are real and they are extraordinary.  I have said many times that God seems to put something special into kids who suffer with cancer.  They are super optimistic, super wise, super compassionate, often super funny, much more than the average human being.

A few years ago, a dear girl and friend of mine who has had to deal with cancer and the after effects since the age of 9, said to me “Wendy, do you think that it’s better for a kid to get cancer when they’re little and don’t understand or when they are older and know what’s going on?” 

First of all, who starts a question with “do you think that it’s better for a kid to get cancer…”?  I’ll tell you who…those of us who have lived in the world of childhood cancer for too many years. These are the things we ponder. For us, it is not “rare” for a child to have cancer.  In fact, many times we know more sick kids than healthy ones.

Are you wondering how I answered her question?  Well, I thought for a minute, because I knew that she wanted a real and truthful answer.  Then I said “I think it’s better for a little one who doesn’t know then they won’t be scared about possibly dying.”

My young friend said “I disagree.  I think it’s better when you’re older and understand because then it has the ability to change you into a better person.”

Wow.

No one wants to go through cancer in order to be changed for the better.  But cancer and lots of other really crappy things happen to us every day that we have no control over.  There is one thing we do control, however, and that is the way that we will allow those things to change us.

THE STORY:

When I decided to listen to the crazy voices in my head and sign up for this half marathon, I decided that I also wanted to find a way to remember all of those superhero kids that have personally changed my life.

I order to do this I have decided to sew individual ribbons, with each child’s name written on them, onto the shirt I will be wearing on race day.  This will be a visual reminder to everyone who sees it and it also allows me to physically carry the names of these kids as I go.  These are kids who have died and also those who have survived (some now into adulthood) but I know each one personally or through their surviving mom or dad. And these are not just St. Jude kiddos. Childhood cancer is everwhere.

So far there are 89 ribbons.

I have listed their names here…first names only to protect privacy.  It’s a long list so you can skim down through or read each name, if you choose.  Those with an asterisk (*) are those who have died.

You will see their names.  I see their faces.

These are the superheroes that I run for… (You won’t want to miss listening to the Song of the Week at the end of this list)

Addison*

Alejandro*

Alex*

Amaya*

Amelia*

Andre*

Andy*

Ashton*

Bobby*

Brandon*

Braydon*

Bree*

Brent*

Brian*

Bryce*

Camden*

Cameron*

Carson*

Catie*

Chase*

Chris*

CJ*

Courtney*

David*

Devan*

Espn*

Gracie*

Leslie*

James*

Jessica*

Jina*

Jonathan*

Josh O.*

Josh R.*

Kaden*

Luis*

Matt*

Matthew*

Miriam*

Myah*

Nicholas Adam Avery*

Nick R.*

Odie*

Owen*

Quincy*

Quintillius*

Ryan*

Sam*

Sarah*

Scott*

Sean*

Shannia*

Susie*

Sydney*

Thomas*

Tyler C.*

Tyler K.*

Will*

Alex

Braydon

Christopher

Clay

Dennis

Emily

Evans

Hayley

Hutch

Jack

Jakayla

Jamarius

Javon

Jayden

John

Jordi

Julia

Leland

Louis

Marcela

Morgan

Noah

Pete

Phillip

Regan

Samantha E.

Samantha S.

Stephanie

Thomas

Vivian

THE SONG:

The song of the week is #50 on my Run Day Playlist…Superheroes by The Script.  I love this song because it reminds me of all of those names I just listed above.  They are the real superheroes.  Listen and remember the superheroes in your life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIm1GgfRz6M

When you’ve been fighting for it all your life,

You’ve been struggling to make things right,

That’s how a superhero learns to fly.

Every day, every hour, turn the pain into power.

 

Be part of the story!  Donate here…

93 days until Race Day and so far we have raised $2,097 to save the lives of kids everywhere!  THANK YOU!!!  Let’s see how much more we can raise!

If you are unable to donate financially, please consider passing along this message to others who can.  Thank you!

http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/Heroes/Heroes?px=2078389&pg=personal&fr_id=59186

 

Many of you who are reading this most likely know our Backstory, or at least part of it.  If you don’t and would like to know more details of Nick’s story, you can visit his CaringBridge site here…

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/nickavery