The good fight

Someone asked me to give some details of the pictures of my last post. They are all from the Saylor Family Fun Night. Since I am so organized, I ended up with my camera charged and ready, but I forgot to put the memory card in it! Go figure! So, Aly was my photographer! The bottom picture is of Ian with his first face painting. I thought they did a great job and he was a pretty cute tiger! You can ask my brother, Don, how easy it was to get the facepaint off!

The middle picture shows my boss calling out raffle numbers while Trent and Ian help hand out prizes. The other gentleman helping is Mr. Randy Smith. You may see Randy on TLC's show How the Lottery Changed my Life. A little over a year ago, Mr. Smith hit the lottery jackpot. I'm not sure how much he won, but I can say that he has be extremely generous with his money. He has donated to a lot of local charities including the Humane Society, Hospice of the Panhandle, the Martinsburg Police and Fire Departments, and Martinsburg-Berkeley County Parks & Recreation, just to name a few. He has given millions back to the community where he was born and raised. The boys had a good time handing out the prizes with Steve and Randy, two great role models in our community!

The top is a picture of my friend Jim and I. I met Jim in college while he was dating one of my friends. He was one of the funniest people I had ever met. In July 2010, after reading some of his posts on Facebook, I sent Jim a message. He had been diagnosed with cancer and we started e-mailing back and forth. He and his wife Jessica also have two small boys so we had plenty to talk about. We would e-mail about the kids, about the guilt we felt putting so much pressure on our spouses, getting nervous about test results, different procedures and scans. I guess it all goes with that old, 'misery loves company' addage.

I was so surprised to see Jim at the Saylor Family Night. He drove quite a distance to be there and I think he had a good time visiting with some of our Wesleyan friends! With his treatment, he was obviously totally bald and I have my lovely patchwork hair coming back. What a great photo opportunity! The fun night was held on a Saturday and Jim told me that he was a little nervous that weekend because on Monday he would get the results of his latest PET scan. He did and it revealed two tumors in his lungs so he was scheduled for surgery on Wednesday. His very brave wife posted yesterday (Sunday 11/20) to say that Jim had peacefully passed away. I am thankful to have known him and I pray for his wife and his boys, as I know all too well what they are going through. Jim, you fought the good fight, now you can rest in peace. You will be missed.