Hannah’s Journey

Another month gone, it’s getting close to five months ago that we lost Hannah. At times, it seems endless. The little things that you don’t expect to have an effect on you are the ones that catch you unawares. We got past her birthday, but for me, the start of school was very difficult. In the last five years of Hannah’s life, she was only able to start school the first day once, however there was always the anticipation that she would get there. She use to talk me into shopping for school clothes close to September, and then of course, we had to go shopping again when the actual day she was going to start got close. I loved to take her shopping because she was always so appreciative of everything you did for her, and because I never knew how long I would have her. I wanted to give her the world, as did Bill. To this day, I still have a hard time walking into the mall.

Bill and I have started attending the parent’s bereavement group at Sloan Kettering. The first trip in was difficult, but it was good to go back. Even though Hannah was so sick, we have so many wonderful memories of that hospital and the people who were there. They were like our family.

The boys are all settled into their respective schools. We miss Nathan and Colin, but they are both enjoying college, so we are very happy for them. Austin is enjoying his time alone with us, however he is aware that the blame for any mess falls directly on his shoulders. What pressure! I guess he can always blame the dogs. Austin had made a promise to Hannah to raise $10,000 for cancer research, so to help him on his way, he is sponsoring a fundraiser at Burger King in Goshen on Monday, September 15, from 4:00 - 8:00. A portion of the proceeds from the evening’s sales will go to Sloan Kettering for research to help find a cure for osteosarcoma. We are very proud of him and his desire to do this for Hannah. He calls it his dream.

An interesting thing happened this week. It started on Colin’s second day at Syracuse. Colin had been wearing Hannah’s dogtags, to keep her close. On his second day at school, he lost the tags during a game of football on the athletic field. He called and was so upset that he had lost them and had searched for them. This week, we got a letter from Syracuse addressed to Hannah. Inside were the dogtags, found on the field, turned in to the admissions office, and sent back to us. I got chills when I opened the envelope and called the office to thank them for taking the time to send them back. Such a little thing for them to do, but such a big thing to us.

Thanks to all for still checking in on us.