Colleen

Offsite last week at company meetings, I ran into a lawyer I had not seen in some time. "Colleen," I said, "I love your hair!"

She said: "I decided not to color it anymore and to leave it short since I'm just now finishing radiation. I was diagnosed last year with Stage 3 breast cancer, and have already gone through chemo."

I tried to explain this to the woman who runs the embroidery business at Northgate, where I take my hat to have names added. Last time I was there she said, "okay, that's it. There is no more room for names on this hat." I said, "If you can guarantee me that I will not learn of anyone else who is a cancer survivor before I do the walk, then I agree. "

I'll be taking my hat out this weekend to have Colleen's name added to the fourteen already there.

From work: Julie, Denise, Tracy, Colleen, Cindy, Lisa.

Friends: Jobeth, Diane, Anne, Judy, Sabine, my sister Mary.

From afar: Elizabeth Edwards, jazz composer/musician Andrew, D'Angelo, and Senator Ted Kennedy.