Another Great Organization

I recently got an update from an old college friend, Jamie. In our email exchange he let me know that his cousin Lizzie, who also went to Penn with us, passed away from late stage breast cancer after a five-month battle with the disease two years ago. She was just 31 years old, months away from finishing her JD, working full-time, happily married, and a new mom to a baby girl. I didn't know Lizzie very well, as I only met her a handful of times. But I remember her well because she was just that impressive.

When I find out news like this, I have this voice in my head that starts saying "That's so unfair!," which was my standard complaint as a kid. Then I hear my dad's voice saying "Tough. Life's not fair," which he always said when I would complain about the unfairness of one of my sisters getting to sit in the front seat or some other silly privilege. I would get so annoyed at my dad for saying that. At some point growing up, I started saying back to my dad, "But it should be." He never bought it. And I guess that's because life still isn't fair, no matter how much we want it to be.

There is a hopeful end to this sad news. Jamie told me that Lizzie's husband and friends have launched a nonprofit organization called MetaCancer to build an online community for and generally help individuals battling late stage cancer. So I wanted to help spread the word about this organization in case it's either a cause you'd like to support and/or an organization that could be of use to you or someone in your life. You can even support the organization by buying red shoes, apparently one of Lizzie's favorite accessories. Fantastic.

And I suppose it's also a good time to announce that Rob and I have raised almost $600 so far for the Teb's Troops 5K in July... along with recruiting several friends to run with us. Not to mention the fact that my mass email has put me back in touch with several old friends. Thank you so much!!! Feel free to keep those donations coming or sign up to run yourself.