Relay for Life 2009

Last weekend was the Relay for Life here in Randolph County. We found out Dad had cancer in February 01. It was the first immediate hit to our family. Mind you we were aware of the disease because we knew Jeannie and Uncle Jr. had lost their battles and Bob was fighting his, but this was the first time we would be thrown directly into this chaos hell. All I can say is if you have seen it first hand then you understand what I mean by chaos hell. My Dad was always my hero, and seeing him in this battle my love and respect for him grew immensely. From that first mention of cancer, we were all scared as hell. One day we are hearing about nodules on the brain and next we are all packed in an office talking about radiation treatments and Dad was admitted the first day and put in ICU. It was hard as hell seeing him so upset sitting on that bed. But we kept telling him it was going to be OK and we were all in this together. So he started his regimen of radiation and chemo and OMG. I had always heard about the treatment nightmares. From the radiation weaken Dad to the chemo making him sicker than a dog and losing his hair, we did go through the treatment chaos. Then when Dad got thrush there was the battle between the chemo and radiation doctors pointing the fingers at each other saying the other treatment caused it. What was harder than hell was getting them to realize we didn’t care what caused it just fucking help my Dad with the pain and discomfort. Actually the treatments did help and Dad did get a break. So the spring of 02 I was never more proud of my Dad as seeing him walk around the relay for life track as a survivor. Yeah he did bring up the rear but that is cause Kim was walking with him and who knows what kind of bullshit was transpiring between those two. When the relay came along in 03 Dad was again going through treatments and couldn’t make it, so I made sure to make some laps for him. Then in September he lost his battle with this terrible disease. Ever since 01 I have made it a point to walk in the relays. Most of all I make sure that Dad is represented with a luminaria bag on that track. I went from getting a handful of bags and now I am up to around 20. Needless to say cancer fucking sucks. Sorry for the language but that is the way I feel.

Now I want to give a big thank you to my designer for some awesome luminaries this year. You did a great job, sorry you had to stay up so late to get them done. If you have some time please check out the slide show of bags and then the video from when they were lit for the ceremony.

In Loving Memory of...
Marie C. Lockart
Logan Lockart Jr.
Lenna S. Morgan
Charles H. Morgan
Bob Stine
Jeannie Jackson
Rick Jackson
Betty Lockart
Glenn Brookshire
Denzil Morgan
Chuck Crowder
Larry Williams
Renee Morgan
Carl Glasco
Larry Crowder
Gary Carns

In Honor of...
Edna Branham
Charles W. Morgan
Elaine Lederbrand