WASHINGTON —
As I’m writing this, the weather report calls for rain Friday and Saturday. The very days that hundreds of people from all parts of the county gathered at Hatchet Hollow for Relay For Life. I can only hope that once again the weather man was wrong.
The last thing the devoted people who spent the last year raising money for this worthy cause need is a downpour. What worthy cause you ask? Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock or been out of the country for the past year, you’ll know that Relay For Life is a fight against cancer. A night when people who have been raising money all year for the American Cancer Society come together to show their support of those fighting the dread disease and their love for those who lost that fight.
Teams have held many fundraisers from dances, to yard sales, to dinners, to bake sales, to allow others in the community a chance to donate to fight this disease that touches all our lives in one way or another.
My grandson Hayden, 16, is a cancer survivor. He was lucky. They caught the disease when he was 12 and the tumor was small. He’s been cancer-free since then and is now a strapping 6-foot football player on his high school team.
It’s not just Hayden who’s lucky. The whole family thanks God every day for his and his brother’s and cousin’s good health. There was nothing so frightening as hearing the word cancer as it applies to a loved ones, especially when that loved one was a child. And there was also nothing so wonderful as to hear a doctor standing outside an operating room tell you they got it all.
That’s when you stop taking things for granted and start appreciating every day God gives you. Every sunrise, every sunset. Every laugh, every tear. They’re all gifts from God and should be cherished if for no other reason than they show you’re alive.
To all those that walked through last night, I can only hope the rain held off and the weather was fine, because if there were any folks in Daviess County who deserved a good night, it was you.
I can also hope you had fun. Just looking at the schedule of events made me laugh. Not that I look at staying up all night as a good thing for myself. That was a good idea when I was in college and studying for tests or when I was a young mother with small children, but after six decades, I’ve found that a night’s sleep isn’t a luxury but a necessity.
Oh well, to all you who made it through the night, wet or dry, I can only say thank you and wish you pleasant dreams tonight.
n Pat is the mother of three, grandmother of four and great supporter of Relay For Life. E-mail her at patmorrison@washtimesherald.com.
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