There is a quiet darkness that now hovers over our winters. Once it was a normal daylight savings issue. In Feb. of 2013 it became something far darker.
Russell started feeling odd on Feb. 9th, 2013 as a hell of a snowstorm named Nemo arrived. Within 24 hours he collapsed and though the fine doctors and nurses at Addison Gilbert tried, nobody could get a read on what was happening...
Another 24 hours and we were in the ICU at BMC. For the next month we road highs and lows that know no bounds. WE found out first hand that Superhero's don't wear capes...they wear nurses uniforms, they wear doctor tags...they are amazing, one and all.
It was a month...just a month...but one where I missed giving him a fishing rod he'd wanted for Valentine's Day, and he missed us going to the movies together that night as was customary ( much to his dismay). He missed my birthday....it was always a great day to remind him how much OLDER he was than me - Ey Dad!? He missed his grandkids birthdays.
He missed our wedding anniversary that March 3rd, it was also the day in 2013 we had to make a decision about his future...it was the day I found out he had none.
He left us on 3/11/13...almost a month after getting sick...after Cancer reared its ugly head and seized upon his life....seized upon all that loved him.
They say time heals. No, it does not. Nothing has been the same since that day. Not for any of us.
Cancer like a rag-tag but determined army of scavengers roamed til it found him. No rhyme or reason. It just takes. It takes your future, it takes the sunshine, it tries to take hope. It almost succeeded.
Shortly after as Spring arrived, I reached out and found the PMC. I found a home, I found wonderful people I would have never normally crossed paths with...a powerful army waging war with a purpose against this disease.
Above all, I found HOPE again. And I have never let it go again.
Our crazy but small band of merry warriors called The Friends of Scrawney-Morgan have raised over $230,000 for Dana-Farber and the Joe Andruzzi Foundation since we started riding bikes, walking walks, fishing the waves, pouring pints for blood drives...seeking fun for funds - Funds utilized to help Dana-Farber continue its research magic. It's how Russell would have wanted it.
Each of you who have given, ridden, volunteered in the past are members of this club! Every donation brings us that one inch closer...closer to a day we no longer lose the Russell's, The Stevie's, the Bob Kavanagh's, the Emmett, Bob, Alice & Matt Kane's - The Ray Charbonneau's...
You each know who they are, they are the people who once lit up our lives.
To quote the great Ted Lasso, "I believe in HOPE, I believe in believe...onward, forward"....never again!
