An important note.

Yesterday would have been my Aunt Peggy's 51st birthday.

 

For some unexplainable reason, she isn't on this earth to celebrate with us.

At 49, her body turned on her, and in a matter of weeks she went from the happiest and most joyful person I've ever known, to someone who couldn't even stand in an elevator to the 3rd floor. 

I remember snipits from that time, two years ago. 

 

The conversation she had with my mom and I in Starbucks that her nurse friend was worried her symptoms "could be cancer", the phone call after Valentine's dinner that Peg was admitted to the hospital, or the doctors appointment when we found out it was in fact pancreatic cancer, or the buckets and buckets of letters she got in the mailbox every single day.

It was 28 days from diagnosis to death.

Pancreatic cancer came into Peggy's body and ravished it. 

It was a fast, aggressive, and scary 4 weeks, and I hope that none of you ever have to expierence it. 

 But one thing I do hope you experience, is the joy of meeting someone like my Aunt Peggy. 

 

She was the light of any room. People gravitated towards her because she was just pure goodness. I was never more beautiful than I was in her eyes. She found only the good in people, and she only gave you the best of herself. 

She is a woman I don't think I'll ever be able to live up to, but if I get to be even half the woman she was, I'll have done alright.

My Aunt Peggy left behind 2 amazing kids - Riley and Gia, and her husband Charlie.

She was so loved by our family and her friends, and even strangers, and there is a hole in many hearts because she isn't here with us.

When Peggy died, people came out of the woodwork. We had meals delivered for weeks, boxes of Kleenx and wine dropped at the doorstep, hugs and letters, and love. Just an outpouring of love from anyone who had been touched by our Peg.

People showed up and showed love.

And maybe most notably, a foundation came in and stepped up.

JEH Foundation, in honor of a friend, Joe Hasten, who lost his battle to Pancreatic cancer, decided to donate all of their 2012 funds to a scholarship that will send my cousins Riley and Gia to college.

The weight of that still moves me.

They raised thousands and thousands of dollars, and they changed the game for my cousins.

I am forever endebted to them.

If you feel a calling to donate to a notable charity, this is the one that I endorse. 

My friends - Joe Hasten's children - run this organization and every dollar is donated to build scholarships to children who have lost their parents to pancreatic cancer.

If you have ten dollars to spare...I urge you to consider JEH Foundation. 

This is the least I can do during this powerless time, and I hope that you will think of Peggy, our family, and the JEH Foundation during this incredibly difficult week for us.

xoxo