In Memory of Lisa

Among other things, regular Saturday things, that I spent yesterday doing, I spent yesterday preparing egg salad for the meal of condolences in honor of my friend Lisa.  She wasn't my bestie but she has been in my life for the last 3 years as Geo and her son have attended school together.  We've helped together with class parties and talked as our kids have played together at birthday parties and summer pool gatherings.

Twenty months ago Lisa found melanoma and fought hard to beat it.  But the last time I saw her, on the last day before winter break, she told me all that was left to do now was pray.  She and her husband were researching experimental treatments and trying to see if there were any last ditch efforts she could qualify for (explaining the complications of cell matching and the like that qualified or disqualified her from such treatments).  But in reality, she looked tired.  In reality this once vibrant, ultra-involved mom, sat in a chair in the boys' classroom and said how thankful she was that family was coming in to help do the things she no longer had the energy to do.

Within one month Lisa's kidneys and liver had shut down and she passed away.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I think pale is beautiful, to lie and say I don't like a bit of that "healthy glow" a suntan brings.  Or sit here and tell you that I didn't spend summers as a kid, as a young adult, laying out to get tan.

But I will tell you this- burying someone at 44, seeing a son without a mother, a husband without a wife- it's enough to have me lathering up (and calling my brother the dermatologist at every new fleck on my skin).

It has me hoping that you, or someone younger than you is willing to watch this video and make the change too.