Children with cancer need your help. They can be one or 19, but they and their families cannot fight alone.
If you know a child with cancer, chances are their life will be brief. We don't want them to be flickering flames flighting the wind alone --- we want their lives to be full of fireworks, just like Luke.
You may be familar with the adult experience of cancer. Imagine the devastation, the fear that grips a toddler who's surrounded by very big people in white coats, pushing and poking, always putting an ice-cold piece of metal on you, squeezing your arm in a blood pressure cup. And that's the easy stuf. Chemotherapy --- harsh drugs pumped into you, making you throw up, or pee constantly, or not poop so your stomach hurts. Spinal tap --- a huge needle is inserted into your lower back and it hurts despite the anesthetic. Radiation --- you are strapped to a table and can't move a millimeter. Everyone else runs out of the room and you are left alone. After days of "treatment" you are sick and your hair falls out, slowly, leaving clumps on your head, your pillow --- in your food. Surgery --- you're allowed to play with really cool toys. You're having a blast when dad has to pick you up and carry you to a big, white room with very bright lights. You know this room well. You scream, you kick, "NOOOOOO!!!" But again, like over a dozen times before, they hold that mask over your face. When you wake up you have a big headache and your side hurts where they cut you --- again! Infection --- you've been in the hospital for 10 days. You're feeling better and the doctor says you can go home after your lab results come back. But, wait, the lab lost your blood sample, and it has to be run again. And you have to stay in that room, in that cage, for one more day.
This is the norm for children living with cancer. If they aren't in the hospital, they have to travel to the clinic for blood work, to make sure they don't have to go back into the hospital. Children with cancer live a life in which they cannot make plans. One minute they feel fine --- the next they have a 104 fever, they're shaking, their blood pressure is 70/40, and they're lucky if they make it to the ICU in time. That's why children living with cancer need fireworks,
their carpe diem.
Children with cancer have too many days when their flame could flicker out with a tree's sigh. Fireworks give them something to look forward to, a reason for taking all the poison and suffering the pain. Fireworks for one kid could be a trip to Adventureland, a visit to grandma, or their favorite stuffed character. For another it could be a trip to see Mickey Mouse, a Playstation, or just a happy face balloon. Each kid's fireworks keep their hope burning. A small, simple event to us, maybe, but it may be the most exciting adventure of their life.
Luke's fireworks were Guenevere, George, and Morgan Faye. He always wanted to be with "the guys." He pined for them when he was in the hospital, and became a "real" boy the minute he came home, laughing at their antics, running after them, climbing the furniture, being Luke. Never asking why am I going to the hospital, why do I have tubes sticking out of my chest, why is my right arm "broken"? Just showing us why not --- I can do anything. I can make fireworks today. Nothing is impossible.
You can help children with cancer make their own fireworks...and be like Luke.
"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"
by Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
One Hundred Years From Now...
it will not matter what my bank account was,
the sort of house I lived in,
or the kind of car I drove,
but the world may be different because
I was important in the life of aCHILD.
SOME PEOPLE...come into our lives and quickly go. Some people stay for awhile and move our souls to dance. They awake us to a new understanding, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.
CARPE DIEM
Seize the Day
TAKE A CHANCE
Try something new
LEND A HELPING HAND
Sing out loud
WEAR A NEWCOLOR
Laugh without a reason
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Trust your instincts
TURN AN ACQUAINTANCE INTO A FRIEND
Feel the sun on your face
FOLLOW YOUR HEART
Tell someone you love them
TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH
Dare to be Yourself
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
WISH UPON A STAR
by Luke's Mom on the occasion of Lukefest 2003
When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires will come to you
When I look at the stars with the kids, we can see Luke and he can see us. It's an old story, but it feels so true --- loking at the stars all together, we again share the feeling of closeness we enjoyed during Luke's cosmic, flashing moment with us. Luke is our guide, our miracle, our inspiration, our star.
Luke is the push behind Lukefest and all the work we've done. because of the way he lived, we know we can do what seems impossible...
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To try when your arms are too weary...
To reach the unreachable star!
This is my quest --- to follow that star!
For example, several months I was looking for a reasonably priced read FREE) magician to perform at lukefest. I kept calling different entertanment companies but had not found anyone. Then, on July 5th we got a call --- a local man saw us at the parade and volunteered his services as a magician at Lukefest. And I knew Luke wanted a magician at Lukefest.
All that glitters is gold
only shooting stars break the mold.
The impossible dreamers are the one that make things happen, those who break the mold. The dreams I have for myself, my family, the Foundation can come true. And anytime I think things might be getting impossible, I just look up, wish upon my special shooting star, and, lo and behold, Luke makes it happen for me.
What lies behind us and
what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
WHAT CANCER CANNOT DO
It cannot cripple love.
It cannot shatter hope.
It cannot corrode faith.
It cannot destroy peace.
It cannot kill friendships.
It cannot suppress memories.
It cannot silence courage.
It cannot invade the soul.
It cannot steal eternal life.
It cannot conquer the spirit.
And if I go while you're still here...
Know that I still live on,
Vibrating to a different measure
behind a thin veil you cannot see through.
You will not see me,
so you must have faith.
I wait the time when we can soar together again,
both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to the fullest.
And when you need me,
just whisper my name in your heart
.....I will be there.
-- Colleen Hitchcock
laughter is music for your heart to dance to...
Shoot for the moon...
Even if you miss,
you will land
among the stars.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away...
