Relay for Life

On Friday, I flew up to Maryland for an overnight trip so I could attend my mother's auction before she moves to Florida. Since it was a bit of a last-minute trip, and I was crashing in on my cousin, Sue, I joined her for the Relay for Life - which was what she had planned long before I decided to come up there and stay with her.

Of course, being a 2-time cancer survivor myself, I was more than happy to go and support a cancer-fighting cause. The Relay for Life that I knew originally was one that was always held outside (and it always seemed to rain, right!??!) and people walked laps for the cause. Well, it has certainly changed. Now, it is indoors and much more vendor-oriented in its fundraising. Sue's team (including her Aunt Carol, her cousins, and some others) sold food and donated the proceeds to the Relay.

There were other ways of "donating" money. People bought luminaries in "honor" of or in "memory" of family or friends who had had cancer. I didn't know it, but Sue had been doing a luminary for me already! She also did one for her father, my Uncle John, who passed away from lung cancer in 2002. Here is a picture of the luminaries that she made for us. I was very touched that she thought of me and did this. The back side has a picture of me, Roger, Jed, and Kit with Jed and Kit's names there as well.
I did one for my father who died from colon cancer in 1985.
At 9:15, they had the luminary ceremony where we lit the candles inside the bags and the dimmed the lights. It's a very powerful, moving, and solemn ceremony - not many dry eyes. I'm glad I was able to be there and participate.

Sue worked behind their food stand most of the night until we left around 12:30. Here she is to the right of the guy in the red shirt (she's wearing the white shirt).
Now, to start the whole thing off, they did a "Survivors" lap. Since I am a survivor, I was able to walk this lap -- and I'm happy to report that there were A LOT of us...I liked seeing that! Anyway, we were given purple "survivor" shirts and just before our lap, we got candles to walk with.

So, here's the funny part...Sue forgot to take her camera, but I had mine. She caught up with me and wanted to take a picture - good idea, yes? I thought so. Her first picture was of the floor - that was a warm-up. The second picture is really great of my legs and shoes - do you like them? I'm the one with the blue, sporty Mary Janes off to the right.
Here I am walking with Aunt Carol - also a survivor.
And, here I am on my own...while the picture is a little blurry, I think it makes me look almost surreal...oooohh--aahhh-ahhh...cue the music...
Okay, but admittedly, the funniest part of the evening came when they starting working on the Miss Relay Pageant. Our team's "queen" was a guy named Herb. I just met him that night, and he seemed like a really nice guy - with a great sense of humor. Sue noticed almost immediately that Herb's nails were painted...mauve. When she asked him about it, he said he was getting into his part, and that he had done his toenails to match!

So, here is Herb as the team "queen."
The object was for the "queens" to run around and get dollar bills stuffed into their cleavage (to raise money). We all thought it was funny that Herb couldn't seem to stop caressing his cleavage! And, then with the nails, it was almost too much to bear! Can you see what I mean??!! Nice to see a guy with a really good sense of humor. They were already discussing evening gowns for him for next year!