Monday, August 30, 2010

Big Hug from God

Another wish came true for me today August 5, 2010 because I became a Wish Granter with Make a Wish Foundation. I have wanted to be a volunteer for many years.

My first assignment was a little boy named Elijah who also has Leukemia. A wish granter meets with the family, spends time getting to know the child and submits paperwork for the wish.

Elijah's wish is that he would like to go on a special shopping spree and have a laptop computer. It was so special meeting him and be an encouragement to the grandmother who is raising him. I brought Church's Chicken because that was Elijah's favorite and he ate five chicken legs and drank root beer. His hair came in curly like mine after losing all of it. It was a special evening! Here are a couple pictures!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Back Home Again in Indiana


This July I had the wonderful opportunity to fly back to my hometown roots in Indiana. A friend blessed me with a free ticket so that I could see old friends, my sister Patty and her famly. Fresh corn on the cob, home grown tomatoes and cucumbers out of my sisters garden was worth the trip alone!
One of the highlights is that my sister took me to Chicago for three days. She surprised
me and took me to a Broadway musical called "Billy Elliot". I had not been to Chicago for 40 years so we enjoyed seeing all of the growth of Chicago with the manificent high rise buildings like the Trump Tower and Willis Tower. We took a tour on the double decker bus which was so much fun.
Back home we enjoyed the pool and spent a lot of family time with my niece and nephew
and their precious children.

Here are some wonderful pictures of my trip!
(Sharon, younger sister Patty and her daughter Michelle)
(Michelle and her beautiful family)
(Noah and Sharon)
(High School friend Anita, Sharon)
(High School friend Julie, Sharon)

Monday, August 16, 2010

Run for the Cure

This post is written by a younger friend of Sharon's named Lindsey who ran the Rock N' Roll Seattle Marathon in order to raise money for Leukemia research.

Lindsey writes:

June 26, 2010 was a day to remember. This is the day I would complete running a race consisting of 26.2 miles. It sounds almost impossible, but when doing it for a cure it becomes enjoyable.

The journey began in January of 2010, when I had just completed my first half marathon at the P.F. Chang’s event here in Arizona. The experience was so exhilarating I was anxious for the next event I could participate in. With that being said, I registered for the Rock’n’Roll Seattle marathon and began my training almost immediately.

While running on the weekends, I noticed this running group that always ran at the same time as I. I finally decided to stop one of them and ask what they were all about. The gentleman gladly explained that they were a part of a non-profit organization to help find a cure for Leukemia and Lymphoma—Sharon immediately came to mind.

I ended up giving the man my information to send me details about the organization and a week or two later I was registered to not only run 26.2 miles, but also to raise $4,000 for a cure.

Both of these feats were a little overwhelming but I knew I could do it.

The next five months I began asking for donations from people I knew and began hearing several stories about how those people have been affected by this horrible sickness. This was all more motivation!

By June 1, I had raised $4,116! The first milestone was completed and only one more to go. Although June was a very hot month here in Arizona, I was determined to keep training.

Before I knew it, it was June 24th and I was boarding a plane to Seattle with my best friend (a.k.a support) and I was on my way to conquering this marathon.

June 26, 2010, 3:30 a.m.: I was up and getting ready to run this race.

I first checked the forecast for the day and, of course, it said cloudy with a high of 52 degrees and a low of 41 degrees; huge difference from Arizona! I got dressed and met my team in the lobby to get on the buses at 4:30 a.m. The bus ride was only a half-hour, but by 5:00a.m I was at the starting line ready to go.

For two hours I had to wait in anticipation because the race started at 7:00a.m. When 6:30 finally rolled around, we began lining up in our corrals to get ready to start the race! 7:00a.m., the gun goes off. There were about 30,000 people running this race, 6,000 full marathoners and 24,000 half marathoners.

There is a huge mob of people slowly moving until there is enough room to kind of spread out. The half marathoners and full marathoners stayed together until mile 9; and then there were hills. Hills so steep my hand could almost touch the ground if I reached out.

This first hill continued for about 3 more miles and the it was downhill; which at this point it almost hurt more than running uphill because your joints and muscles are so sore. When I reached mile 15, I slowed down a bit to take in how huge this uphill stretch was; it was so long I could not see where it ended. Soon to find out the stretch went uphill the whole time! I made it up and down without collapsing, which was a miracle because I was HURTING!

When I reached mile 23 I was really thinking about giving up and just walking the rest of the way because I was in so much pain.

When this thought went through my head I immediately thought of Sharon. I couldn't believe all the complaining I was doing about this pain that I have only been experiencing for the past 2 hours when Sharon goes through pain worse than this on a daily basis!

When I came to this realization I shut my mouth and powered through the race. If it weren’t for Sharon I wouldn’t have finished. Completing the marathon was the biggest accomplishment I have ever encountered, but knowing that I did it to find a cure for Leukemia and Lymphoma was an even bigger one.

With love,

Lindsey Scott

Official finish time: 4:06:53

Money raised that the Rock’n’Roll Seattle marathon: $2 million