Relay

Later today, we're having a memorial party for my mother. We've laid in rather a lot of wine, some spirits, much cheese and many crackers. The house is already full of people, and countless more will arrive in dribs and drabs all afternoon. We're expecting that many of them will want to walk through the house, the house that was my mother's life work in a way, a house she restored and decorated and filled with all manner of antiques and whimsy and spare parts. So we've fluffed and tidied, and my sister is outside cutting forsythia, which is in full bloom right this very minute.

It rather breaks my heart that Moky retired at 65, only to be diagnosed with metastasized lung cancer at 69, and to die of that cancer at 73. She had so much more to do - more things to knit and sew, more pictures to frame, more shrubbery to prune, more books to read, more places to visit. Instead, slowly, inexorably, her light went out.

In a couple of months, my sister will again walk in the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life. It's her way of honoring our mother, and her father-in-law, both of whom recently died of cancer.

If you have a reason to do so - and who doesn't - won't you support Relay For Life? Clicking on the luminaria will take you to my sister's page. I'll thank you, and she will, and maybe your donation will help kick cancer's ass.