Day 5

Wow is all I can say about today. We started today at 8am and took the trucks to meet our escorts for the days event. When we arrived at our location we saw a sea of motorcycles. I would have to say at least 30-50 of them. I was driving Karen to this event and I had a special passenger. Here name is Anna Beth. Anna Beth has cancer and is scrapping like a girl with it. Her attitude was great. It was her first time being inside a fire truck let alone being able to sit up front and ride in it. I told her the one rule she had to follow was make sure she waves at everyone. Her son sat in the back of the open cab with the other Guardians of the Ribbon. Anna and I had a great conversation about her cancer and luckily my sunglasses are dark enough that she couldn't see my eyes welling up because of the honor I had driving her to the event. Anna, I know your reading this now and hopefully I will start reading your blog as soon as your start it. Keep fighting the fight like a Girl and know that we love and care about you. Pink Heals!

    Now about the event, we were back in Baytown, TX which is a suburb of Houston. Baytown really understands that Pink Heals. They had a Poker Run, walk/run, vendors, and other raffles taking place. Once we had our 3 Pink Trucks and 1 Pink Squad car set up in its place we were ready to begin. I had alot of visitors come by that I had met the day before at the Cancer Center. Ms. Maxine and her husband Cecil for starters. They both battled cancer and Cecil is finishing his battle. They have been married for 57 years. She came back 3 different times during the day to see Bob and I. She had to get a picture of the 2 guys that brought her such joy in our visit with her. I loved the fact that she kept coming back. Then I met Adele, her story is completely opposite. Her rock in her 1 year battle of breast cancer has been her sister. Why? Let me tell you why, her husband left her when she was first diagnosed. She said that he didn't know how to cope with it and he found someone else. When she told me this, I got very agitated hearing this. We as men need to be there to support our women. We need to give them that love and let them know its unconditional. Here she is a 1 year survivor and receives her love from her sister. She just recently found out that 4 more lumps have been found. Her sister said she has been there during the first fight and will be there all the way through this next one. Then there was Stephanie. She was a spunky one. She is a survivor of breast cancer and is currently waiting on her doctors release. And she is waiting impatiently because she has a zest to start her next chapter as a Roller Derby girl for the Rocket City girls. She fought and won. And then I have Kim. Kim is a survivor who has signed our Pink truck Karen 4 different times while it has been in the Houston area. Her signature is on the inside of the passenger door and every time she signs the year and location the truck was at.  She beat cancer and also developed a close friendship with another survivor while at a cancer walk. These are just a few of the hundreds that I spoke with today. And then there were the Mays family. They lost their son to cancer in his kidneys. Their son was a fire fighter for the city of Houston. RIP Mad Mike Hayes!

     I had to reread yesterdays blog because I got some comments on it being very sweet. I had to ask why and was told that I actually opened up my feelings on it. Like I have said a few times already, its really difficult to truly express what I am feeling when I have the opportunity to listen to a story about a battle. I get goosebumps, my eyes well up. I get like this cause I know my worse day can not come close to what these people have already experienced. What would your reaction be if you went to the doctor tomorrow and was told that you had stage 4 cancer? They have gone through the notification process, they have gone through the treatment process. But what happens when they reach their cap on their insurance? What happens when the now can't afford that wig if they choose to get one? Or what about reconstruction surgery? This is why the tour is so important. We bring our trucks to communities for free. We come so that the communities can do fundraisers to raise money for their local cancer facilities to help off-set these costs that I have mentioned. If we all started seeing the whole picture then we would see that Pink will Heal. It starts with us. It starts with us giving support. In Memphis we are working on starting our own Pink Heals Chapter. Are you ready for it? I would like to say a special thanks to a few people from our 2 day visit in the Houston area. First to our 2 Harris County Deputies that escorted us everywhere we needed to be. Also thank you to Kim the photographer that kept snapping the shots and telling us to lean on our back foot so that we look slimmer for the pictures...lol