Please support me as I commit to walk the Denver Susan G. Komen 3-Day, 60-mile walk on August 1, 2 and 3rd.  This will be my 2nd walk in Denver. I am walking to raise money – to end breast cancer forever.  It will be hard, but it’s not as hard as breast cancer. It’s not as hard as chemo. It’s not as hard as saying goodbye to the best aunt EVER!  Below is a journal note I wrote after I lost my Aunt Sandy (we called her Dee Dee).  She died on January 2, 2024 to metastatic breast cancer.  She was a 4-time survivor! AND I WALK FOR HER!

My Aunt Dee Dee will forever be one of the strongest people I know.  She always made me feel included and she always made everyone feel included.  Her house was always the house I stayed at when my parents went away or even just for a get away.  Its hard to believe that I'll never be able to learn another card game from her, play another card game with her, get to see her do her "Dee Dee dance" again.  I'll never get to see her hold her side stitch because she was laughing so hard.  I won't get to hear my mom say our weekend plans are to "head up to Dee Dee's" or "let's call Dee Dee" and the Dee Dee sleepovers are over.  She was SO loved.  

Throughout this process and talking about how many people would go to her "celebration of life", it makes me feel so grateful that I got be close with her.  Some of my favorite memories with her and about her are when I would sleepover at her house (when she lived in my Grampsie's old house) and the train would be SOOO loud, but that never woke her up.  Her snoring was the worst.  It would almost make the house shake, but now I almost wish I could hear her snore one last time.  

We always baked Giardelli brownies together and, in the morning, she would make me a big pile of Bisquick pancakes.  She taught me how to make poached eggs in her egg maker because she made them for Uncle Bruce a lot.  She always let me do her hair.  I loved to braid it or put it in silly styles.  My favorite is when we used those Revlon tubes of hair color and I would dye her hair and then put her hair over the bathtub and pretend I was a hair stylist.  She would even make my uncle sleep downstairs so I could sleep in bed with her and we always fell asleep watching HGTV or Pitbulls and Paroles.   I would wake up to her playing candy crush.

She gave me a teddy bear for Christmas like 4 years ago and I barely ever sleep without it.  My Aunt Dee Dee was such a happy, loving person.  I hope one day I will be as strong and as tough as she was.  She will be so missed but I am so lucky I got to have as many memories as I do with her.  I am sure she is lighting up heaven and is having a good old time up there.