I will start with a few special moments in the life of Evan’s family since I was with you last. On March 2, Derek and his club at the high school put together another awesome blood drive. With 175 donors coming out that day, they collected their highest number ever, 135 good units, and one of those units was my sons. Derek has been anticipating his first donation since before he turned 16 in December. We thought we would get to do a family donation when Mary was here that month, but someone always was a bit under the weather. When the big moment finally arrived, he admitted being scared to death of the unknown. I have no doubt the harem of girls that surrounded him surely took his mind off the fear factor, and after it was over, he couldn’t believe how easy it was and said “next time platelets”. This young man will donate a lot of blood product in his lifetime no doubt, and perhaps he will be the lucky one to donate marrow in his lifetime as well. So proud of my boy on so many levels.
My hubby, who likes to procrastinate when it comes to his health, allowed his ulcerative colitis to flare up to levels what were just shy of hospitalization. I will never understand the “maybe it will resolve itself” or “I’m just gonna google my symptoms and try to fix it on my own mentality”, and once again I knew best, but thankfully I didn’t have to say it too loud, his female doctor took care of that for me. I, on the other hand, especially since Evan, have me or my kids “in” the moment something doesn’t feel right. Better safe than sorry my friends, as knowledge is power in all aspects of life. Well, I wish I could say Mark is on the mend, but I think it will several weeks before he is actually in a pain free zone. Guess momma Gina will have to keep a better eye on her oldest child.
I just posted on FB before the plane took off that I had to stand in line at check in with no joke, probably a 1000 other people. I have NEVER seen lines like that ever, even in the security section. Bad planning by Southwest with spring break in the mid-west I suppose, but I made it to the plan with 8 minutes to spare. So along with the stress of standing in line and wondering if I was going to make my flight, by the way, the stress was over once I was on the plane, I lost my internet card at some point on the trip, $85, and we got a parking ticket after having lunch in Chicago right before we headed to the airport, unjust I will tell you, $60, but all in all, the trip to see my girl was PRICELESS$$$$.
We are so much alike and have so much in common, it is scary. If I treated my husband the way I treat my girl, we would live in paradise, but for some reason I am just a pain in his ass on a regular basis. Something I am working on as we speak, as acknowledgement of a behavior is step on in being able to correct it, right? But back to Mary. She asked me a few months ago to come out to run a marrow registry with her student nursing association. She had much difficulty initially getting them on board, but once the wheels were turning, all was good. I spoke to over 60 student nurses on Tuesday night, and then gave them an opportunity to join the registry. I must tell you that when I asked my normal question to this group, “how many of us are on the registry already” and only Mary and I raised our hands, I was shocked once again. I will tell you I am shocked on a regular basis in my new life, and I don’t think this will ever change. But the good news is that 55 of those individuals in that room joined that night, and a few others joined in the next two days. There were two for sure that were medical deferrals, and bottom line, on that day in Indiana, Evan and God made a difference to this population of future medical professionals. I then asked for volunteers at the student union while I ran a drive for the next two days for the “regular” student community. While Mary and I were concerned for the first hour after setting up next to the cafeteria, once a few students showed up to help, we ended the day with another 65 individuals and a group of student nurses that were empowered with the cause and the messaging. They too were shocked at the lack of enthusiasm when they asked their fellow students walking by “if they would like to learn how to save a life”. I had to get them to get rid of the “want to join the BONE marrow registry” spiel, and give them something they could not easily say no to. The “not today”, or “I have class” responses bugged them, but when a young lady called them out for “guilt tripping them”, this momma stood up for her brood. While I bee lined my way past my volunteers who had open mouths in response to this girl’s response to them, I stopped her in her tracks with a very strong message of why we were there and left her with one big fat bowl of guilt. She deserved it and my kids needed to see that I would not allow this ignorance. I will share that I do believe she came back later, or her teammate in the same jacket who looked very similar, hmmmm, and signed on.
The next day, back to our post, we signed on another 72 on, with the help of an African American Valpo football player who heard my message and joined first thing that morning. He asked me if I could let his coach know what he did, apparently he doesn’t feel like the coach sees the good side of him, and I took that ask and ran. A phone call later to his secretary, who initially seemed like she was going to try to screen me out, but once she heard why I was calling she put me right through. And while I asked if he would allow me 5 minutes to speak to his boys, he didn’t think it would work that day as they were not together and meetings were happening throughout the day. But he did promise to share the facts with the boys and coaches and encourage them to head over to the union that day. Of course, I did ask him what he knew about the registry and if he was familiar with Coach Talley and his work with his football players at Villa Nova. He was familiar and that did it for him, a challenge to get his boys involved works well with any athletic community. Little by little, all day, the boys and even a coach came to join, and this picture was one that I just couldn’t resist taking. The only thing missing is the boys being in uniform. I LOVE football players!
I am hopeful that you all received our first Be A Hero Become A Newsletter at the beginning of the month via email. If not, view NEWSLETTER here. Sign up to be on our MAILING LIST here, so you can keep up with our efforts to save lives. You never know if you might want to get involved on some level in the future. I will also ask that you “LIKE” us on our FACEBOOK PAGE. This will allow our info to come up in your newsfeed so you can see what we are up to on a regular basis. Some pretty cool stuff we are part of.
We lost a great volunteer earlier this year, who needed to focus on her family, which was devastating for me because Carolyn and I were two grieving mammas on a mission. I wasn’t sure how I would do it without her, but thankfully God opened the door for our board to make the decision to hire a part time employee. We had several very qualified, perhaps overqualified, individuals step up, and I was positive we would hire a 20- something-year-old college graduate who was waiting to find their ideal career job. Instead, welcome Chris, a San Clemente resident, who happens to be a year younger than me. Her resume, topped off by her follow through, made this a no brainer, and between her and my administrative assistant, Mary, they will keep me on my toes.
The rest of spring looks packed with donor events. I am still actively seeking volunteers who are interested in helping once a year or once a week, so please be sure to connect with me so I can include you in our Facebook group for BAHBAD volunteers.
On the grief front, today we met up for lunch in Chicago with a dear friend who lost her brother a few months ago. Her pain is so new and raw, and Mary and I are grateful that time has allowed us some relief from that daily agony. For me, the work of the foundation is my salvation here on earth having to live without Evan. It was interesting while at Mary how difficult it was for me to see Evan’s face all over her room. I guess I am just used to the pics I have at home and they don’t affect me, but I had to constantly force myself to not look, as it brought back the agony with a vengeance. One thing I have learned, don’t judge how another grieves, this pain is all their own.
On a religious front, I am in the best place I have ever been in my almost 48 years as a Catholic. The journey has been a rocky one, but I’m in such a good place, that I know for a fact this is the reason I am doing so well without my boy here on earth. We started another 54 day Novena on Ash Wednesday, which has been wonderful. We are working to bring Immaculee Ilibagiza, a Rwandan genocide survivor, who has allowed thousands to learn to embrace the Blessed Mother and her promises to us through the Rosary, here to the youth of Orange County, something we hope to do this fall. www.Immaculee.com And I have gone back to church, which wasn’t the hardest part, but am able to go to our family’s church, which was. I have been taught by a few amazing spiritual mentors in my life the reason for going to church in the eyes of the Catholic faith. And going from a cradle Catholic, born and raised with no real true understanding, to dipping in head first to learn about my faith, has been miraculously healing in itself. One huge thing I have learned in this arena is this….there are countless religions on this planet. None is better than another. Most of us were born into our faith, while others chose theirs. As believers in our faith, how dare we judge another for believing in theirs. Even for those I know who are non-believers, or aren’t sure? All I am interested in doing for them is to pray that they can someday find faith, as without mine, I would not survive this earthly life I have been blessed with.
Love to you all,
Evan’s Mom
PS Since no one can figure out how to comment on this blog, go right to CB and write in our guestbook please. I need the motivation from you that my words do make a difference.
CB Guestbook I love the ability to have pictures and videos here, so this is where I will continue to write, but will notify you through CB, so be sure you get notifications there.
