It's been an emotional couple of weeks in the Hoy household. We recently attended the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's annual Man and Woman of the Year gala. It's the one cancer related fundraiser I can get Mike to attend a year. Teams of men and women spend several weeks competing against each other to raise money for the LLS and cancer research. In addition, two young children in remission are always honored as Boy and Girl of the Year. And that's where my tears always start. But I only cried once this year. Just once.
Following this, we attended the annual fundraiser for the Jason Kinzler Family First Foundation, an organization setup to assist families who lose a loved one unexpectedly. The Foundation has covered funeral expenses, mortgage payments, purchased groceries. I honestly think this fundraiser is the hardest to attend. The stories shared are so powerful, so full of raw emotion. The LLS fundraiser celebrates the survivors, the success stories. The Kinzler Foundation helps families grieve those who are never coming back. This year's key speaker was PJ Fleck, head coach of the WMU Broncos football team. Listening to him explain Row the Boat was an eye opening message.
And then we were hit hard with the final blow. Mike's Aunt Brenda had decided to discontinue her chemo treatments, and passed away on June 5th. Again we had to explain to Lily that we were going to celebrate another life, this time Aunt Brenda, who we'd just seen. Her response to this - Will she be in Heaven with Sue? - our close family friend who passed away less than a month before. The logic in this little one's brain is unreal. I've had a couple of people, including some family, who think it's wildly inappropriate to be discussing death with my four year old. To me, hiding this fact of life would be wildly inappropriate. Especially to my four year old who already has an old soul.
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