Chris

I have had writer’s block for too long!  I’ve been trying to think of something spectacular to say since Saturday, but honestly – I’m not doing a good job at coming up with anything!  I think it’s because I’m still just so speechless about my subject!  Usually, when I admit that and just sit down at my computer, words flow out of my fingers … so here we go!!

Saturday was a day filled with motivation and inspiration…  it started out with our usual team workout, followed by a team picnic to celebrate the end of a great season!  We got together potluck-picnic-style and shared our training stories, race-day memories, injury accounts, ups, and downs.  It was great to see everyone together sharing congratulations, hugs, and high-fives!  Saturday evening brought about a more formal start to this next season (for me, personally).

I got to meet Chris for the first time.

Before I introduce you to Chris, I want to introduce you to someone else.  I’ve been friends with Chris’s wife, Megan for a little over a year now.  We used to work together, and for about the last six months before I left the company, we shared a cubicle wall, lunch-times, supplies, gripes and complaints, funny stories, break times, files, cupcakes, and the last few minutes of every day just talking to each other.  I learned a lot about her two little princesses, how much she hates driving downtown, her favorite drink (Jack & Coke), and her love for her husband.  She learned a lot about me too – my passions for knitting and reading (I finally turned her on to Twilight, but she’s not convinced of Edward’s gorgeousness yet …) how much less picky I am about eating new food than she is (that’s good or bad, depending on who you ask …), and how amazingly crazy-fun running 5, 10, 18, 26.2 miles is for me.  She checked on my progress regularly and congratulated me all the time when I hit personal milestones along the way.  She was so eager to support my training and fundraising for TNT last season, and took the time to ask how Annie was coming along with her treatments.  She is, in all completely-absolute-seriousness, one of the most positively sweet, kind, generous, patient, understanding, compassionate, hopeful, silent-warrior-type women I have ever met in my life.  Truly.  To the point where you could look up the phrase “couldn’t hurt a fly” and Megan’s picture would be right next to it … haha.  No, seriously though …

The thing about Megan that will stay with me forever, was not just how much she supported me during my training last season.  It was her support of Annie.  It was her support of a million other patients, families, friends, and loved ones fighting the big fight against Leukemia, Lymphoma, and cancer in general.  People she will never meet.  She probably gave me a dollar every day that she saw me, to help me raise money for LLS, if not more.  I honestly don’t know the total that she donated.  But I can tell you that when she thought I wasn’t looking, I saw her sneaking dollars, quarters, nickels, and dimes in the jar that I had at my desk.  I can only imagine how many times she dropped money in there when I was away …  She didn’t know Annie.  She didn’t know what LLS stood for or what the society was about.  She didn’t know what Team In Training was.  And she certainly didn’t know what Hodgekins Lymphoma was either.

Chris was diagnosed with Hodgekins Lymphoma 2B.  That’s one letter away from what Annie had been diagnosed with (the letters A and B stand for the type of symptoms present).  The moment Megan told me, my heart both sank and fluttered at the same time.  It fluttered because I knew how much hope I was filled with while talking to Annie as she fought; how much hope there was from all the research and progress that has come from people like Megan donating to LLS.  But it sank because I didn’t want to watch another person close to me fighting something so horrible.

Megan didn’t stop donating money.  She’s sweet, but man – she’s stubborn!  No matter how many times I asked her not to, she still dropped money in that jar.  She’d walk across the street to get a bagel for breakfast, ask me if I wanted anything when she left, and plunked her change in the jar when she got back.  Honestly, it frustrated me at first because I didn’t understand her heart.  I wanted her to save her money for the things she and Chris needed.  Finally I gave up being frustrated and just started saying thank you.  I didn’t know how to tell her that she was now one of the people that I was supporting by raising money for LLS.  I didn’t need to though.  She knew what her money was going to now, more than she did before.  But her compassion for all the others fighting was much stronger than her need for support in her and Chris’s own fight.  So she kept donating up until I packed up my desk … and that jar.

Two months later, and just a few weeks after finishing the RNR Marathon, I visited Megan at work because I wanted to ask her permission for something.  I wanted her to let me run a race in honor of Chris, and raise more money for LLS.  She said, of course!  And then she invited me to a benefit dinner that the ladies of her church were putting on in honor of Chris.  I said, of course!  So, just a few days ago I went to the dinner for Chris.  There was a huge raffle as well, with all the proceeds going to Chris and Megan to help them with their fight.  It was overwhelming in such a blessed way!  Megan told me that there had been 186 tickets sold for the dinner, and I don’t even know how many raffle tickets were sold!

I got to meet Chris for the first time.  I got to give him a hug and a card from my team, and then I got to fight back my own tears twice.  Nothing really prepares you for receiving a truly heartfelt “thank you.”  Nothing.  People say thank you all the time – at the gas station, at the office, at Starbucks, at the bank … you name it.  But those people don’t look you in the eye and truly thank you for something.  So when Chris thanked me, the only way I could stop myself from sobbing in front of 186 people that I’d never met before was to be my usual smart-ass self (like right now) and waive it off.  But he didn’t really let me do that.  Because he’s just like Megan – genuinely full of goodness, kindness, and love.

I got the privilege of watching all of Chris’s and Megan’s friends and family show their love and support for the both of them all night.  I got to see the faces of their immediate support group.  I got to meet people, listen to stories, and watch these two love-filled people get even more love showered over them (no pun intended, hehe …).

When I left, I met Chris with a hug and thanked him for letting me be there and let him know that if there is anything I can do to help him, Megan, and their gorgeous little girls to just let me know.  But he said, “Can you just keep being the friend to Megan that you have been?  She’s such a strong woman and I am so blessed to have her.”  As I fought back my second round of tears, I just said, “Of course.”  And he said, “Thanks, I’ll be seeing you again soon.”

So, just like I said in the beginning – I have been speechless the last few days.  I’ve replayed the last short conversation with Chris over and over, and I keep coming up in pure awe.  For every “couldn’t hurt a fly” bone in Megan’s body, there’s a “not a lick of selfishness” bone in Chris’s.  They are quite the pair.  And I am quite the lucky one to know them both.

Thanks for reading all the way through this.  I am incredibly honored to be running for Chris this season.  I want to leave you with two photos, one that Megan let me borrow of her and Chris, and one that Nick shot for me at the picnic.

Chris and Megan

I don’t think anyone can look at this photo and NOT see how much these two love each other!  They are both truly amazing!

A little prayer

Last season, when Megan first told me about Chris’s diagnosis, I made a ribbon for them and tied it on the team net.  At the celebration picnic, the net was up as another reminder of why we are running, why we are fundraising.  It was awesome to find the ribbons that I’d made for my loved ones, and Nick took a photo for me to keep that memory!

Thanks again for all of your love and support!  I’ll be posting more updates, progress, and fundraising opportunities as we go!

Love,

Mae